THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

SCHOOL  OF  LAW 


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LEGAL  ETHICS. 


THE  UNITY  OF  LAW. 


"THERE   IS   ONE   LAWGIVER." 


A  COURSE  OF  LECTURES,  INTRODUCTORY  TO  ONE  ON  LEGAL  ETHICS, 
DELIVERED   TO   THE   FIRST   LAW   CLASS,    1878-9. 


W.  H.  PLATT,   D.D.,  LL.D., 

Professor  of  Legal  Ethics  zn  the  Hastings  College  of  Law, 
University  of  California. 


CLASS    EDITION. 


LAW  COLLEGE,   UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


r 


^ 


b 


HONORABLE  S.  C.  HASTINGS, 

FOUNDER     OF    THIS     COLLEGE    AND     DEAN    OF    THE     FACULTY, 
THESE    LECTURES 

ARE  RESPECTFULLY  INSCRIBED. 

The  students  graduated  from  this  college  are  prepared,  through 
your  munificence,  to  become  representative  men  on  this  coast,  and 
as  long  as  this  State  endures  your  civilizing  work  goes  on.  Most 
important  is  your  desire  and  effort  to  develop  Legal  Ethics  as  a 
distinct  department  of  instruction.  Though  this  special  field  is 
new,  yet  through  your  encouragement  and  support  I  entered  upon 
its  duties,  and  these  lectures  are  the  first,  though  immature  fruits. 
While  you  will  fully  value  whatever  merits  they  may  have, 
there  is  no  one  more  sensible  of  their  deficiencies  than  I  am 
myself. 

W.  H.   PLAT1\ 

Hasting's  College  of  Law. 
University  of  California,  1879. 


671293 


To  THE  Class: 

These  are  merely  introductory  lectures  to  a  course 
upon  legal  ethics  yet  to  be  given,  and  they  are  printed 
for  your  convenience.  I  have  no  time,  at  present,  to 
revise  them  for  publication.  They  aim  to  find  an  axc- 
Oiority  in  ethics,  rather  than  to  construct  a  system  of 
ethics.  If  all  laws  are  one  will,  then  the  lawgiver  is 
one,  and  parallel  to  the  science  of  theistic  matter  is 
the  science  of  theistic  morality.  To  command  that 
which  is  universally  right  is  the  sole  prerogative  of 
One  universally  supreme.  The  law  of  gravitation 
among  the  spheres  is  the  same  will  as  the  law  of  har- 
mony among  men.  The  consequences  of  disobedience 
are  alike  inexorable  in  each.  This  will  is  revealed 
in  Nature,  and  is  essential  to  all  that  was  before  and 
is  above  nature.  Science  tells  all  it  can  of  the  former, 
and  the  religious  books  of  the  world  tell  us  all  we  need 
to  know  of  the  latter.  Morality  is  Avhat  ought  to  be 
done,  and  that  ought  to  be  done  which  the  Supreme 
One  commands.  His  will  is  wiitten  everywhere,  and 
on  everything;  not  to  find  it  is  to  misread  the  universe. 

W.  H.  PLATT. 


ANALYSIS. 


LECTURE  I. 

I.  THE  UNITY  OF  MATERIAL  AND  MORAL  EVOLUTIONS. 

LECTURE  II. 

II.  THE  UNITY  OF  MATERIAL  AND  MORAL  CORRELA- 

TIONS. 

1.  FlKST  COIIKELATION — 

(a)  The  religious  basis  of  morality  to  be  displaced. 

(b)  The  political  basis  of  morality  to  be  correlative- 
ly  substituted. 

2.  Second  Coekelation — 
f  (a)  The  religious  basis  of  morality  to  be  displaced. 

-i  (6)  The  philosophical  basis  of  morality  to  be  cor- 
^  relatively  substituted. 

3.  Third  Cokeelation — 

f  (a)  The  philosophical  basis  of  morality  to  be  dis- 
j  placed. 

(6)  The  religious  (Christian)  basis  of  morality  to 
L  be  correlatively  substituted. 

4.  FouETH  Coeeelation — 

r  (a)  The  political  basis  of  morality  to  be  displaced.  • 
-j  (6)  The  religious  (Christian   or  Jewish)  basis  of 
*-  morality  to  be  correlatively  substituted. 

LECTURE  III. 

III.  THE  UNITIES  OF  SYSTEMS: 

1.  The  unity  of  the  solar  system. 

2.  The  unity  of  the  system  of  impersonal  nature. 

3.  The  unity  of  the  system  of  personal  nature. 

4.  The  unity  of  social  forces. 

5.  The  unity  of  the  system  of  causation. 

6.  The  imify  of  moral  systems. 

7.  The  unity  of  the  system  of  intelligence. 


ERRATA. 


Page  26,  6th  and  7th  lines  from  the 'bottom,  read   "from  the 

heterogeneous  to  the  homogeneous." 

Page  32,  Gth  line  from  bottom,  read  "beast"  for  "boast." 
Page  85,  8th  line  from  bottom,  read  "The  Patrician's  religious 

family  was  constituted." 

Page  87,  10th  line  from  top,  read  "in  its  strongest  moments." 
Page  91,  7th  line  from  top,  read  "and  not  from  ancestors." 
Page  95,  9th  line  from  top,  read  "right"  instead  of  "which." 
Page  103,  5th  line  from  bottom,  read  " consuUa'^  instead  of  "co)}- 

siilata.'' 

Page  105,  4th  line  from  the  bottom,  read  "gods"  instead  of 

"faiths." 
Page  111,  10th  line  from  top,  reads  "as  is"  instead  of  "as  was." 
Page  145,  4th  line  from  top,  omit  the  M'ord  "that." 
Page  168,  3d  line  from  top,  read  "the  fact"  instead  of  "part." 
Page  194,  3d  line  from  top,  read  "into"  instead  of  "in." 
Page  195,  12th  line  [from  bottom,  read  "his  mitre"  instead  of 

"their  mitres." 
Page  198,  4th  line  from  top,  read  "him"  instead  of  "it." 
Page  232,  3d  line  from  top,  read  "its"  instead  of  "his." 

Page  237,  5th  Hue  from  top,  read  "as  the  scale  of  intelligence 
rises  from  nescient  plurality,  the  number  of  individuals  possess- 
ing it  decreases  to  onniiscieut  unity." 

Pago  239,  omit  Ist  line,  and  read  "In  form,  tliere  is  the  one 
lawo°f  gradation,"  etc.;  Gth  line  from  top,  read  "harmonies  of 
analogy  or  of  contrast. 


THE  UNITY  OF  LAW. 


LECTURE  I. 

EVOLUTION  OF  MATTER  AND  MORALITY. 

I.  The  Abstract  Unity  of  all  Laws: 

1.  The  Unity  of  Essence; 

2.  The  Unity  of  Vindicatory  Sanctions — 

(a)  In  matter; 

(b)  In  morality; 

(c)  The  point  of  unity. 

II.  The  Unity  of  Law  in  the  Evolution  of  Matter  and 

Morality: 

1.  Integration — 

(a)  Integration  of  matter; 

(b)  Integration  of  morality; 

(c)  Point  of  unitj'. 

2.  All  Causes  multiply  their  Effects — 

(a)  Material  causes; 

(b)  Moral  causes; 

(c)  Point  of  unity. 

3.  The  Fact  and  Law  of  Segregation — 

(a)  Material  segregation; 
(h)   Moral  segregation; 
((•)   Point  of  unity. 


10  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

4.  Evolution  of  the  Ethics  of  Legal  Character — 
(a)  Laws  of  condition; 
i.  Law  of  heredity; 
ii.  Law  of  environment; 
(h)  Laws  of  direction; 

i.  Lines  of  least  resistance; 
ii.  Lines  of  greatest  attraction. 

Gentlemen  :  As  you  are  to  give  yourselves  to  the 
management  of  the  varied  and  supreme  concerns 
of  society,  the  importance  of  your  professional 
preparation  can  not  be  exaggerated.  The  bench, 
assisted  by  the  bar,  announces  the  rules  of  all 
civil  relations,  the  civil  responsibility  of  all  ac- 
tions, and  the  boundaries  of  all  civil  liberty. 
While  other  moral  agencies  can  only  persuade, 
the  municipal  law  decides  and  enforces.  How- 
ever the  moral  principle  of  action  may  come,  the 
municipal  law  gives  the  imperative  rule.  As  min- 
isters of  the  law,  you  are  to  participate  in  those 
august  functions  which  are  most  like  God's.  Peo- 
ple may  believe  religion,  but  they  imist  obey  knu. 
As  the  law,  right  or  wrong  (wrong  law  is  no  law), 
is  sovereign,  the  earthly  hopes  of  mankind  hang 
upon  juristic  enlightenment.  Revolutions  claim 
to  justify  tliemsclves  in  bad  laws,  but  wise  laws 
content  a  people.     Nothing  but  the  law-giver  can 


LAW  BESTS  ON  MORALITY.  11 

be  higher  than  the  law.  It  is  only  in  the  presence 
of  law,  guarding  with  its  sublime  authority  the 
portals  of  civilization,  that  we  can  adequately 
appreciate  the  great  benefaction  of  our  distin- 
guished fellow-citizen  in  establishing  this  college. 
When  we  think  of  the  entangled  and  conflicting 
claims  between  man  and  man,  the  passionate 
dramas  ever  arising  in  society,  the  perturbed  rela- 
tions of  political  power  and  individual  liberty,  all 
of  which  are  so  directly  in  the  hands  of  lawyers, 
we  see  that  your  moral  convictions,  as  candidates 
for  this  duty,  are  of  the  first  public  importance. 
To  this  end  the  wisdom  of  the  founder  is  the  more 
conspicuous  in  securing  for  the  institution,  which 
is  to  transmit  his  name  with  eminent  honor  to 
future  generations,  the  first  professorship  for  a 
systematic  instruction  in  legal  ethics  ever  estab- 
lished. This  is  the  more  important  on  this  coast 
as  the  University  of  the  State  has  no  chair  of 
moral  philosophy. 

As  written  laws  do  not  rise  above  the  moral  ideas 
of  lawyers,  so  you,  gentlemen,  do  not  begin  to  be 
prepared  for  your  legal  privileges  and  duties  until 
your  consciences  have  been  instructed  alike  with 


12  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

your  intellects;  for,  while   logic   gives   the  form, 
morality  is  the  principle  of  all  law. 

As  the  life  of  the  race  continues,  and  new  rela- 
tions and  interests  of  society  present  •  new  and 
conflicting  claims  of  right  for  decision,  so  law, 
drawing  upon  its  reserved  fund  of  unadjudicated 
moral  principles,  multiplies  its  rules  and  perfects 
its  system.  But,  as  instability  is  a  fact  in  all 
things,  so  municipal  law  is  unstable,  because  it  is 
progressive,  and  progressive  because  it  is  unstable. 
The  ignorance  of  the  passing  hour  is  corrected  in 
the  outcoming  omniscience  of  the  ages.  Law  is 
the  accumulated  expression  of  the  moral  experi- 
ence of  all  the  past.  Moses,  Solon,  and  Justinian 
were  long  in  coming,  but  they  came  Avlien  the  race 
was  ready  to  hear  them.  Evolution  dates  nothing, 
but  calls  out  its  phenomena  when  ready  for  phe- 
nomena. The  law  commits  no  anachronisms  by 
anticipating  its  occasion.  Eternal  justice  has  pre- 
arranged the  times  of  its  coming.  Or,  rather, 
justice,  or  right,  is  to  each  human  relation  and 
act  what  space  is  to  each  emerging  world.  When 
the  world  comes,  space  is  around  it,  wherever  it 
may  be. 


THE   UNITY  OF   TKUTH.  13 

The  professor  of  legal  ethics  and  the  rules  of 
morality  in  this  college  is  furnished  with  his  sub- 
ject and  its  restrictions  in  the  very  title  by  which 
his  chair  is  designated.  "Ethics  is  the  science  of 
the  laws  of  our  actions,  looked  at  with  regard  to 
their  morality  and  immorality,  and  pre-supposes 
a  knowledge  of  man  as  a  moral  agent. "'^  Well 
knowing  that  this  is  not  a  churcJi  in  which  to 
teach  sectarian  religion,  but  a  college  of  law,  I  shall 
sincerely,  and  I  hoj^e  successfully,  confine  such  in- 
struction as  may  be  my  privilege  to  give,  strictly  to 
legal  ethics,  and,  if  possible,  reduce  them  to  the 
form  of  a  science.  Religion  will  be  discussed,  like 
any  other  factor  of  civilization,  only  in  the  light  of 
history  and  philosophy. 

Under  these  circumstances  let  us  seek  for  some 
common  but  sure  grounds  of  our  sludy  whereon  we 
all  may  stand  in  light  and  strength.  Though  the 
law  is  no  Atheist,  I  shall  for  the  present  restrict 
myself  to  admitted  and  demonstrated  principles  of 
the  science  of  Nature,  to  exhibit  the  method  of 
legal  ethics,  rather  than  appeal  to  supernatural  au- 
thority as  their  basis.  The  truths  of  one  depart- 
ment of  nature  are  only  the  obverse  of  the  truths 
(a)  J.  H.  Balfour  Browne's  Medical  Juiis.  of  Insanity,  105-6. 


14  THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 

of  GA'erj  other  department.  As  tnitli  is  eternal 
and  universal  {semper,  iihique,  omnibus),  let  us 
kneel  in  its  presence,  wherever  found,  and  be 
thankful  for  it,  in  whatever  race,  creed,  code,  or 
age  of  the  world  it  may  have  utterance. 

I  seek,  in  the  authority  for  the  admitted  laws  of 
matter,  an  authority  for  tlie  laws  of  morals.  What 
and  where  is  that  authority?  Is  it  in  the  personal 
nature  of  man,  in  the  order  of  impersonal  nature, 
or  in  the  will  of  supernatural  Being?  Some  stand- 
ard must  be  fixed  upon  at  the  outset.  Let  us  fol- 
low the  light  of  reason,  wherever  it  may  lead  us. 
In  these  introductory  lectures  we  propose  to  keep 
our  minds  upon  the  uniform  movements  of  nature, 
as  exhibiting  the  unity  of  law. 

I.  THE  ABSTEACT  UNITY  OF  ALL  LAWS. 

As  law  is  like  a  royal  coin,  precious  and  current, 
with  moral  supremacy  superscribed  on  one  side, 
and  matter,  as  a  sacred  symbol,  on  the  other,  so 
the  material  and  moral  systems  are  one,  but  not 
the  same.  To  understand  the  highest  generaliza- 
tions of  either  system,  we  must  understand  the 
highest  generalizations  of  both;  and  exactly  as  wo 


THE  ABSTRACT  UNITY   OF   ALL  LAWS.  15 

iinderstat'id  one  we  shall  understand  the  other. 
Therefore,  as  in  the  last  lecture,  keeping  our  eyes 
still  fixed  upon  the  uniform  manifestations  of  the 
laws  of  matter,  as  admitted  in  recent  thought,  let 
us  study  in  the  revelations  of  the  material  and  vis- 
ible, the  nature  of  the  moral  and  the  invisible. 
Leaving  theories  to  shape  themselves,  let  us  go 
directly  to  the  facts  of  the  universe.  If  nature  is 
one,  law  must  be  one;  and  what  is  found  authori- 
tative in  the  material  will  not  be  contradicted  in 
the  moral.  As  the  radii  of  a  circle  have  the  same 
centre,  and  as  the  two  equal  angles  at  the  base  of 
an  isosceles  triangle  have  the  same  vertex,  so  we 
may  expect  the  laws  of  matter  and  morality  to 
focalizd"  in  the  same  will,  and  manifest  their  pres- 
ence by  the  same  operative  method.  If  the  laws 
of  matter  multiply  effects  and  segregate  phenom- 
ena, so  the  laws  of  morality  multiply  results.  As 
harmony  is  the  result  of  compulsory  obedience  in 
matter,  so  it  is  of  voluntary  obedience  in  morality. 
The  evolutionary  laws  of  integration,  environment, 
propagation,  growth  and  correlation  are  the  same 
in  both.  The  unity  of  material  and  moral  law  is 
seen  in  the  unity  of  essence,  the  unity  of  sanctions, 
and  the  unity  of  manifestations. 


16  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

1.     THE  UNITY  OF  ESSENCE. 

Blackstone  says  that  "law  depends  uot  upon  our 
approhcdioiis,  but  upon  the  maimer  s  ivlll."  If  Black- 
stone  be  correct,  law  is  neither  a  cause  nor  an 
effect,  but,  as  a  volition,  is  sid  generis.  Statute 
law  is  the  will  of  the  legislature.  International 
law  is  the  will  of  the  nations.  The  law  for  the 
servant  is  the  will  of  the  master.  In  ultimate  gen- 
eralization, we  may  say  that  all  law  is  will.  The 
supreme  will  is  the  supreme  law.  This  will  is  one 
as  the  sun;  law,  many  as  the  rays.  As  every  ray 
is  all  sun,  so  every  law  is  all  will.  Laws  may  be 
distinct  as  the  waves,  but  they  are  one  as  the  sea. 
Law  is  the  universal  nature  of  things,  relations, 
and  actions.  It  is  not  made,  but  it  exists.  There 
is  as  much  law  at  one  time  as  another.  There  was 
no  more  or  other  law  at  the  time  of  Justinian  than  at 
the  time  of  the  XII  Tables.  There  were  more  pro- 
hibitions, but  not  more  law;  for  universal  reason 
neither  increases  nor  diminishes.  When  man  is  com- 
manded uot  to  steal,  no  new  law  is  made.  Honesty 
is  tlio  law — dishonesty  its  violation.  Law  is  in 
doing  or  being;  not  in  uot  doing  or  not  being.    Pro- 


ALL  LAW  IS  DECLARATORY.  17 

liibitions  may  indicate  or  reveal  law,  but  they  are 
not  laws.  Tliey  only  forbid  the  breaking  of  law. 
Prohibition  implies  the  law.  As  society  grows 
older,  it  gains,  through  religion  or  mere  human 
reason,  what  the  law  of  universal  reason  is,  and  de- 
clares prohibitions  against  its  violation.  So  the 
enlightenment  of  the  world''  enables  it  to  discover 
what  the  nature  of  things  requires  or  necessitates, 
and  also  to  prohibit  its  disregard.  The  affirmation 
of  law  implies  a  prohibition  of  its  violation,  and 
the  prohibition  of  an  act  implies  the  law  threatened 
to  be  broken.  Thou  shalt  not  steal  implies  the 
right  of  property  and  possession  of  a  thing.  The 
correlative  of  every  affirmation  of  law  is  the  nega- 
tion of  its  violation,  and  the  reverse.  As  the  con- 
vex side  of  every  curved  line  has,  on  the  obverse, 
a  side  of  correlative  concavity,  so  every  law  has  a 
correlative  warning  or  prohibition  not  to  violate  it. 
The  law  of  gravitation  is  in  the  falling  tower,  not 
in  the  notice  to  keep  from  under  it.  Law  is  in  the 
ownership  of  land,  not  in  the  posted  warnings 
not  to  trespass  on  it.  Law  is  executory,  not  pro- 
hibitory. The  multiplicity  of  prohibitions  do  not 
(o)  Mill's  Comte,  p.  103. 


18  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

multiply  laws:  Tliej  at  most  suggest  what  the  law 
is  whose  violation  is  forbidden. 

For  this  reason,  tlie  growth  of  codes,  as  that  of 
Justinian,  does  not  indicate  the  growth  of  law,  but 
the  growth  of  its  violations  to  be  prevented.  So 
the  maximum  of  law,  as  it  is  called,  is  the  maxi- 
mum of  its  violation.  The  multiplicity  of  rules  of 
morality  indicates  a  multiplicity  of  immoral  cus- 
toms. Kules  of  morality  multiply  as  principles  of 
morality  are  broken.  We  must  distinguish  be- 
tween the  principle  of  legal  rules  which  is  logic, 
and  the  principle  of  legal  principles  which  is  nat- 
ural or  universal  reason.  The  law  of  right  conduct 
is  the  same  as  the  law  of  gravitation;  for  both  are 
will.  Gravitation  holds  matter  to  centres  and  sys- 
tems of  centres,  producing  the  harmou}^  of  circular 
motion;  so  the  laws  of  moral  conduct  hold  men, 
races,  and  nations  to  social  centres  and  systems  of 
centres,  producing  domestic,  municipal,  and  inter- 
national order  and  harmony. 

2.    THE  UNITY  OF  VINDICATORY  SANCTIONS. 

This  is  seen — («).  In  the  consequences  of  the  dis- 
ohcdience  oj  inaltcr.     "If,"sa3's  Hooker,  "nature 


hooker's  definition.  19 

should  intermit  her  course,  and  leave  altogether, 
though  it  were  but  for  awhile,  the  observation  of 
her  own  laws;  if  those  principal  and  mother  ele- 
ments of  the  world,  whereof  all  things  in  this  lower 
world  are  made,  should  lose  the  qualities  which 
now  they  have;  if  the  frame  of  that  heavenly  arch 
erected  over  our  heads  should  loosen  and  dissolve 
itself;  if  celestial  spheres  should  forget  their  wonted 
motions,  and  by  irregular  volubility  turn  them- 
selves any  Avay  as  it  might  happen ;  if  the  prince  of 
the  lights  of  heaven,  which  as  a  giant  doth  run  his 
universal  course,  should,  as  it  were,  through  a 
languishing  faintness,  begin  to  stand  and  rest  him- 
self; if  the  moon  should  wander  from  her  beaten 
way,  the  times  and  seasons  of  the  year  blend  them- 
selves by  disordered  and  confused  mixtures,  and 
the  winds  breathe  out  their  last  gasp,  the  clouds 
yield  no  rain,  the  earth  be  defeated  of  heavenly 
influence,  the  fruits  of  the  earth  pine  away,  as 
children  at  the  withered  breast  of  their  mother,  no 
longer  able  to  yield  them  relief,  what  would  be- 
come of  man  himself,  whom  these  things  now  do 
all  serve?  See  we  not  plainly  that  obedience  of 
creatures  unto  the  law  of  nature  is  the  stay  of  the 
whole  world?" 


20  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

(b)  The  consequences  of  dlsohedience  are  not 
different  in  morality,  but  infinitely  more  dreadful. 
If  in  moral  life  every  man  should  disregard  every 
right  of  his  fellow-man;  and  if  every  husband  and 
Avife  shpuld  violate  every  law  of  tlieir  relation, 
and  every  parent  and  child  be  unnatural  to  each 
other;  if  every  master  should  oppress  and  not  pay 
the  wages  of  the  servant,  and  every  servant  dis- 
obey and  rob  his  master;  if  every  government 
should  seek  to  crush  its  citizens,  and  all  the  citi- 
zens constantly  war  upon  the  government;  if  every 
man  were  to  treat  every  contract  as  a  baseless 
promise;  if  no  man  had  an  admitted  right  to  live, 
to  own  lands  and  chattels — in  a  w^ord,  if  there 
were  no  obedience,  and  every  man  were  a  law 
unto  himself,  would  not  social  chaos  and  recon- 
struction come  as  certainly  from  disobedience  in 
moralit}^  as  chaos  and  reconstruction  would  come 
from  disobedience  in  matter?  The  same  will  is 
behind  all.  The  threads  of  all  laws  are  gathered 
into  the  same  hand.  Nature  rejoices  in  such 
principal  things  as  the  ocean  and  the  sun,  where 
tlio  many  look  to  the  one.  Centripetalism  is  the 
law  for  both  atoms  and  men. 


ALL  LAWS   PUNISH   DISOBEDIENCE.  21 

(c)  The  point  of  unity  of  sanctions.  The  imi- 
formity  of  effects  shows  unity  of  cause.  The 
uniformity  of  phenomena  is  the  exponent  of  the 
unity  of  law.  This  unity  is  in  the  analogy  that 
moral  laws  are  as  self-assertive  as  those  we  call 
inorganic  or  material,  and  can  no  more  be  broken 
with  impunity  than  they.  All  wrong  is  indelible; 
and,  in  a  system  of  mere  law,  disobedience  is  neither 
forgotten  nor  forgiven.  Eesponsibility  transcends 
knowledge.  Its  limitations  wander  through  a 
moral  economy  of  the  ages,  untraceable  to  finite 
intelligence.  A  cause  is  an  immortal  thing.  A 
wrong  is  an  ever  parturient  womb,  like  that  of 
Milton's  hag  at  the  gates  of  hell,  from  which  a 
life-repeating  progeny  comes,  to  curse  and  die.  A 
felony  is  social  suicide.  Every  act  has  its  equiva- 
lence in  either  compensations  for  suffering  virtue 
and  acts  of  kindness,  in  reparations  for  moral 
injuries,  or  retributions  for  injustice.  But  we 
have  no  telescope  with  which  to  look  on  to  the 
hidden  end.  Be  sure  your  wrong- doing  will  find 
you  out  and  drive  you  into  a  corner.  " 'Tis  the 
eternal  law  that  where  guilt  is,  sorrow  shall 
answer  it." 


22  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Nature  neither  sleeps  nor  dies.  For  every  in- 
jury she  returns  a  blow.  As  you  twist  the  twig, 
so  must  run  the  sap  of  the  tree.  All  beginnings 
are  solemn,  but  bad  ones  "cast  their  shadows 
before."  Punishment  may  seem  to  be  postponed; 
but,  as  in  the  constitution  of  man,  matter  and 
morality  are  each  the  avenging  Nemesis  of  the 
wrongs  of  the  other — punishment  is  sure  to  come. 

If,  at  this  moment,  I  do  not  venture  to  announce 
to  you  any  special  ground  of  essential  right,  simply 
speaking  of  it  as  eternally  omnipresent,  let  us  see 
what  method,  if  any,  material  science  furnishes  to 
ascertain  the  fact  of  law.  Can  we  use,  in  reason- 
ing about  morals,  the  principles  used  in  reason- 
ing about  matter;  and,  by  induction  in  morals  as 
well  as  in  matter,  discover  any  one  principle  upon 
which  all  j)henomena  rest?  Does  not  the  uni- 
versality of  law  necessitate  the  unity  of  law?  If  it 
can  be  seen  that  a  tree  and  a  system  of  morals  are 
made  upon  the  same  principles,  we  can  well  be- 
lieve in  a  one  Law-giver,  and  in  the  unity  of  His 
laws.  Similarity  will  be  lost  in  identity,  and  par- 
allels will  meet  in  infinity.  This  identity  of  prin- 
ciple of  all   phenomena,    material   and   moral,  is 


UNITY  OF   ALL   EVOLUTION.  23 

seen  iu  universal  organizations,  universal  develop- 
ment, universal  individualization.  This  is  evolu- 
tion, and  pertains  to  the  method,  not  the  cause 
of  manifestations.  The  cause  lies  out  of  sight. 
Herbert  Spencer  calls  it  "The  Unknowable." 
We  can  know  lohat  law  is,  but  not  ivliy. 


II.  THE  UNITY  OF  LAW  IS  SEEN  IN  THE 
UNITY  OF  ALL  EVOLUTION. 

The  necessities  of  my  search  for  abstract  unity 
of  law  compel  me  to  venture  upon  most  abstract 
generalizations.  But  we  shall  be  more  than  re- 
paid for  such  dry  investigations  and  discussions 
if  we  find  the  unity  we  seek.  Unity  is  a  necessity. 
Circumferences  must  have  centres.  From  the  one 
all  lines  converge,  and  from  the  other  all  lines 
diverge.  There  can  be  no  diversity  without  a  cor- 
relative unity.  Plato  says  that  all  unity  tends  to 
plurality,  and  all  plurality  ends  in  unity.  As  the 
engineer  must  know  the  unity  of  his  machine,  as 
well  as  the  diversity  of  the  several  parts,  iu  order 
to  manage  its  tremendous  power,  so  the  lawyer 
must  know  law  in  the  unity  of  its  principles,  as 


24  THE   UNITY   OP   LAW. 

well  as  the  plurality  of  its  i*ules,  in  order  to  know 
his  ground. 

Laws  are  not  made,  but  they  appear  as  there  is 
need.  Like  the  "  ever-becoming  "  of  Heraclitus, 
law  is.  "Mankind's  notions  of  right  are  gener- 
ally founded  upon  prescription."'^  "Koman  law 
grew  out  of  the  varied  experience  and  the  prac- 
ticed forethought  of  a  great  people,  and  which 
provided  naturally  and  easily  for  the  numberless 
questions  of  human  life  and  intercourse."*^  "The 
study  of  a  great  variety  of  natioDS  shows  that 
none  of  the  conditions  essential  to  the  existence 
of  men  in  a  social  order  can  be  said  to  have  been 
at  any  time  artificially  made  for  them  by  any 
prophet  or  law-giver.  The  utmost  that  legislators 
can  effect  is  to  modify,  to  improve,  to  purify  ex- 
isting systems  and  institutions.  To  none  of  them, 
that  we  know  of  in  history,  was  it  given  to  find  a 
void  which  he  could  fill  with  a  theory  of  his  own 
invention.  Laws  are  not  made,  but  grow.  Even 
now,  in  our  time  of  restless  and  over-prolific  par- 
liamentary law-making,  new  laws  mark  only  the 
endeavors  of  legislators  to  find  the  forms  in  Avhich 
(a)  Kalian's  Mid.  Ages,  337.  {b)  Church's  Mid.  Ages,  53. 


EVOLUTION  REVEALS  LAW.  25 

tlie  general  feeling  of  justice  is  to  be  expressed, 
or  in  which  new  Avants,  felt  by  the  community,  are 
to  be  satisfied  under  public  authority.""  And  in 
order  not  to  conflict  or  fail,  they  must  come  from 
one  will.     Law,  to  be  law,  is  infallibly  wise. 

For  civil  purposes,  it  has  an  ethical  sense  which 
is  not  of  man,  and  a  logical  form  which  is  from 
man  only.  To  be  a  true  lawyer  is  to  know  both. 
To  instruct  you  exclusively  in  the  logical  form  of 
law,  you  have  the  assistance  of  your  eminent  Pro- 
fessor of  Law,  while  it  is  permitted  to  this  chair 
to  invite  you  into  more  general  ethical  fields. 

The  evolution  of  matter,  the  evolution  of  morals, 
or  rather  the  evolution  of  the  knowledge  of  morals, 
or  law,  and  the  evolution  of  character,  show  that 
the  most  general  laws  of  all  phenomena,  both  ma- 
terial and  social,  are  the  same.  Though  evolution, 
as  a  theory,  has  received  the  assent,  qualified  or 
unqualified,  of  many,  if  not  a  majority,  of  the 
thoughtful  minds  of  the  age,  yet,  before  we  can 
use  it  in  the  study  of  ethics  or  of  character,  we 
must  ascertain  more  definitely  what  it  means. 

The  word  evolution  expresses  for  science  what 

(a)  Ihiie's  Early  Home,  ch.  IV. 


26  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

the  word  progress  formerly  did  for  metapbysics. 
Both  words  cover  the  idea  of  traceable  derivation 
or  development,  not  of  causation.  To  evolve  is 
not  to  cause.  As  a  philosophy  of  the  beginning 
of  things,  like  other  schemes,  evolution  is  useless. 
In  the  language  of  Herbert  Spencer,  its  great 
teacher:  "Evolution,  under  its  simplest  and  most 
general  aspect,  is  the  integration  of  matter,  and 
the  concomitant  dissipation  of  motion."  What  is 
meant  by  "integration  of  matter,"  and  how  does 
that  principle  in  material  phenomena  help  us  to 
understand  the  nature  of  ethical  principles  ?  As 
nature  can  not  obey  contradictory  commands,  the 
unity  of  law  is  a  necessity.  Accordingly  we  see  all 
phenomena  have  the  same  method  of  manifestation 
from  the  many  to  the  few,  from  the  incoherent  to 
the  coherent,  and  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous. 

1.    INIEGRATION. 

(a)  Integration  of  Blatler. — The  law  here  is  either 
that  of  chemical  affinity  or  of  mechanical  attrac- 
tion. ATlieu  the  cream  gathers  on  the  surface  of 
the  milk;  when  straws  and  litter  in  the  current  be- 
come collected  in  an  eddy;    when  boiling  syrup 


UNIFICATION  IS  INTEGRATION.  27 

crystallizes  into  sugar;  when  a  crowd  gathers  in  the 
street;  when  various  religious  opinions  cease  dis- 
cussion, and  assent  to  a  creed;  when  political 
parties  stop  agitation,  and  agree  upon  a  platform; 
when  many  things  in  action  become  one  in  repose; 
all  division  of  labor,  all  committee  work  in  legis- 
lative bodies,  all  specialties  in  skill,  all  variant 
moral  notions  formed  into  rules  of  conduct — all 
this  is  integvatlon,  or  the  first  step  in  evolnl'ion. 
The  exploring  star-gazer,  who,  in  imagination,  sees 
the  worlds  come  out  of  the  initial  mist  envelop- 
ing the  beginning  of  all  things,  beholds  integra- 
tion upon  integration— the  mist,  the  sphere,  the 
system  of  spheres,  and  system  of  systems.  The 
great  law  is  exemplified  in  the  rose-bush  of  your 
garden.  It  is  an  organization  of  separate  elements, 
developing  into  structure,  beauty,  and  sweetness. 
For  further  illustration,  take  a  given  volume  of 
oxygen  and  twice  that  volume  of  hydrogen.  Bring 
these  together  and  you  have  water,  which  is  dis- 
tinctly neither  gas,  yet  chemically  both.  The 
hydrogen  in  it  will  no  longer  burn,  nor  will  its 
oxygen  any  longer  promote  combustion.  Neither 
gas  can  then  obey  its  own  distinctive  laws.    When 


28  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

water  was  produced  it  brought  its  owu  law  with  it. 
Indeed,  as  the  laws  of  a  thing  are  in  the  thing 
itself,  so  a  drop  of  water  bears  in  its  sphere  a 
M'hole  code  of  the  laws  of  matter. 

(b)  ItdegraUon  of  31orals  and  Law. — Ethical  law 
observes  the  same  method.  Moral  thoughts  inte- 
grate into  moral  convictions,  and  convictions  into 
laws,  and  laws  into  systems,  and  systems  into 
codes.  New  laws  are  in  new  relations.  The  law 
does  not  anticipate  the  relation,  but  the  relation 
exhibits  the  law.  The  hiAv  of  evolution  takes  hold 
of  the  life  tvithin  iiuture  itself,  and  correlation  man- 
ifests the  movement  of  that  life  in  its  rehUions 
without. 

Suppose  that  only  two  men  existed  in  the  whole 
world,  and  each  dwelt  in  a  separate  island.  What- 
ever may  be  said  of  their  rights  when  apart,  bring 
them  together  and  each  becomes  to  the  other  a 
possible  wrong-doer;  and,  as  to  the  other,  each 
has  rights.  Chrysippus  said,  "Men  exist  for  each 
other.  "'^  As  the  hydrogen  and  the  oxygen  to- 
gether make  something  that  neither  is  by  itself, 
so  these  two  persons,  when  associated,  develop  a 

(a)  fZeller  on  Stoicism,  312.]  Protagoras  said,  "  llelations  are 
fur  .ill." 


NO   UNITY   WITHOUT   LAW.  29 

law  of  property  and  of  person  that  neither  needed 
by  liiraself.  The  two  coming  together  make  a  re- 
lation, and  the  relation  is  its  own  law.*^ 

If  there  were  but  one  person  in  all  the  world, 
the  law  of  that  one  would  be  absolute  selfishness. 
His  ownership  and  possession  would  be  exclnsive 
—at  least  undisputed.  All  the  sunlight  Avould  be 
his,  all  the  hills  and  valleys,  all  the  springs  and 
rivers,  all  the  gold  and  silver,  the  cattle  upon  the 
thousand  hills,  all  the  trees  and  fruits,  would  be 
his.  But  the  appearance  of  a  second  person  Avould 
be  another  unit  of  selfishness,  and  if  there  was  of 
any  one  thing  only  enough  for  one,  and  both 
sought  it,  there  would  be  a  conflict,  in  Avliich  the 
stronger  would  prevail.  Each  would  be  supreme 
to  himself,  but  not  to  the  other.  But  harmony 
requires  law  that  shall  be  supreme  over  both. 

One  law  ties  many  different  things  together,  and 
one  method  of  law  is  the  same  as  to  matter  and 
mind.     If  one  thing  could  exist  by  itself,  it  would 
be  powerless.     One   atom  without    another  rftom 
amounts  to  nothing.^     The  end  of   essential  mo- 
la)  Paulus,  Digest,  Lib.  1,  Tit.  1-3;  1  Lecky  E.  M.  313. 
(b)    "Nothing  in  this  world  is  single, 
All  things  by  a  law  divine 
In  one  another's  being  mingle." 


30  THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 

ralitj  is  one  of  self-preservation,  the  survival  of  tlie 
fittest,  or  the  perpetuation  of  that  which  has  been 
begun.  For  illustration,  when  the  second  man  ap- 
peared, the  producing  power  cannot  be  supposed 
to  have  worked  in  the  dark,  or  in  vain.  The  pro- 
ducing power  is  also  the  preserving  or  continuing 
power.  Therefore,  that  is  right  to  be  done  by 
either  or  both  of  the  two  which  Avill  best  preserve 
the  two.  This  is  not  the  ancient  doctrine  of  Snm- 
imnn  Bonum,  because  that  looked  to  results  that 
could  not  be  estimated  alike  by  all.  The  scope 
was  too  wide  and  remote  for  any  one.  But  the 
law  of  harmony,  discoverable  by  each  one,  was  a 
law  practicable  to  each  one.  But  essential  law  is 
not  more  a  law  of  harmony  than  a  law  of  preserva- 
tion; and  the  question  is,  what  exists  to  be  pre- 
served. For  instance,  Avhen  two  men  looked  each 
other  in  the  face  for  the  first  time,  what  were  they 
to  each  other?  Both  had  a  right  to  live.  Were 
they  strangers,  enemies,  or  brothers?  Or,  when 
man  and  Moman  met  for  the  first  time,  did  they 
meet  with  permanent  or  transient  interest  in  each 
other?  Did  they  meet  as  merely  loAver  animals,  or 
were  they  social  beings  of  a  progressive  destiny? 


ALL   THINGS  CREATED   EY   LAW.  31 

The  law  is  according  to  the  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions. That  only  is  done  which  is  well  done,  and 
what  is  done  is  to  be  preserved. 

As  everything  in  the  universe  seeks  its  own  per- 
fection, so  groups  of  things  seek  to  create  some- 
thing that  each  is  not,  and  which  shall  be  higher 
than  all.  For  instance,  a  tree  is  a  compound. 
From  the  earth  comes  one  agent,  from  the  air  an- 
other, and  from  the  water  another,  and  these  all 
work  together  for  the  good  of  every  other  thing, 
and  for  their  own  glory.  The  one  tree  integrated, 
or  evolved,  out  of  these  several  crude  elements, 
becomes  a  marvel  of  order  and  beauty.  It  is  what 
none  of  the  elements  could  be  by  itself,  and  only 
appeared  when  they  combined.  Thus,  integration, 
or  initial  evolution,  is  a  way  of  creation.  Antag- 
onism, or  what  Herbert  Spencer  calls  "dissipation 
of  motion,"  subsides,  discussion  between  individ- 
uals ceases,  agreement  is  reached.  The  solidifica- 
tion of  the  diffuse,  the  fixedness  of  the  elastic,  the 
unification  of  the  many,  the  repose  of  the  disturbed, 
the  equilibrium  of  the  unstable,  is  the  method 
of  law — of  development,  Avhether  in  matter  or 
society.     Compensation  is  universal.    What  is  lost 


32  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

in  one  direction  is  gained  in  another.  Hydrogen, 
in  becoming  a  constituent  of  water,  surrenders  its 
Yolatility,  and  becomes  a  standard  of  Aveigbt. 
Oxygen,  to  become  water,  ceases  to  promote  com- 
bustion, but  becomes  active  in  extinguishing  it. 
The  will  of  the  one  state  becomes  the  will  of  the 
many  individuals.  In  a  word,  all  things  that  come 
together  must  leave  something  of  themselves  in 
abeyance.  All  building,  whether  of  worlds,  of 
law,  or  of  character,  is  on  the  same  principle  by 
which  motion  becomes  organic  rest;  incoherence 
becomes  coherence,  and  the  transient  becomes  the 
permanent.  This  integrating  principle  has  been 
active  from  the  beginning.  As  the  gaseous  form 
of  the  earth  lost  its  heat,  it  lost  some  of  its  motion. 
Particles  cohered  or  solidified;  the  crust  thick- 
ened, and  effects  multiplied  upon  effects,  until 
chaos  evolved  into  order,  and  light  came  from  sun 
and  star,  and  vegetal  chemistry  prepared  food  for 
thinking  boast  and  conscious  man. 

What  is  law,  and  what  are  the  ethics  of  law?  All 
so-called  law-making  is  the  correlation  and  integra- 
tion of  ethical  ideas.  Law  is  both  an  ethical  princi- 
ple and  a  logical  rule.  And  yet  the  principle  and  the 
rule  arc  not  two  distinc-t  things,  Ijut  only  diHcrcnt 


•       ETHICS  IS  LAW.  33 

sides  of  the  same  tiling.  Legislatures  prescribe, 
and  courts  announce  the  rule,  and  moralists  ascer- 
tain and  define  the  principle — in  other  words,  there 
is  statutory  morality,  adjudicated  morality,  and 
speculative  morality.  The  principle  is  to  the  rule 
Avhat  the  soul  is  to  the  body,  and  without  Mhich 
the  body  cannot  be.  Cessanle  rat  lone,  lex  cessat. 
Neither  the  conscience  nor  the  relations  of  society 
could  long  tolerate  an  immoral  law.  Indeed,  an 
immoral  law  is  not  law,  though  it  may  be  acqui- 
esced in  as  law.  The  law  emphatically  forbids 
anything  contra  bonos  mores.  Take  the  ethics  out 
of  law,  and  Avhat  have  you  left?  Law  and  its  max- 
ims are  adjudicated  ethics,  or  abstract  ethics  con- 
verted into  an  authoritative  rule  of  action.  For 
the  purpose  of  getting  at  this  ethical  principle  or 
rightness  in  claims  triable  before  the  courts,  are 
all  the  rules  of  evidence  and  all  the  forms  of  pro- 
cedure. Ethics,  or  rightness,  then,  is  the  essence 
of  law.  In  other  words,  law  is  only  applied  ethics. 
In  the  law,  moral  principles,  like  sunlight  on  a 
rolling  planet,  rest  upon  and  glorify  whichever  side 
comes  up.  The  sun  is  ever  the  same,  but  the  side 
of  the  planet  next  to  it  is  ever  changing.  Eather, 
morality  is  to  the  law  what  sun  is  to  the  wheat; 


34  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

without  the  sun  there  is  no  Avheat,  and  without 
morality  there  is  no  law.  New  events  evolve  new 
relations,  and  new  relations  bring  their  own  moral 
principles,  or  laws,  with  them.  Law  is  an  optimist, 
and  bj  dropping  the  obsolete  and  applying  the 
new,  ever  seeks  its  own  perfection.  Rules  of  con- 
duct scattered  through  the  moral  sentiments  of 
mankind  attract  each  other,  and  become  a  code. 
This  is  legal  integration.  Uncertainty,  discussion, 
and  conflicting  opinion  agree  upon  some  formula 
to  which  applies  the  arbitrary  doctrine  of  Slave 
Decisis — let  the  decisions  stand;  let  something  be 
settled.  Society  seeks  to  know  the  universal 
truths  concerning  itself,  and  to  announce  them  as 
authoritative  rules  of  conduct.  The  special  is  ever 
transmuting  itself  into  the  universal,  and  the  uni- 
versal into  the  special,  and  the  temporal  is  ever 
moving  on  into  the  eternal.  The  law  of  this  uni- 
verse is  improvement,  not  cliange  for  the  sake  of 
change. 

The  Jewish  conscience,  social  habits,  and  theo- 
cratic i)olity  integrated  in  the  Ten  Command- 
ments or  code  of  Moses.  Greek  wisdom,  senti- 
ment, and    conviction    integrated    in    the  code  of 


MATERIAL  AND   MOIIAL  CAUSES   ONE.  35 

Solon.  Komau  law  was  first  a  family  discipline; 
afterwards  it  integrated  in  the  laws  of  the  Twelve 
Tables,  in  the  annual  Edict  of  the  Praetor,  in  the 
Responses  of  the  Jurisconsults,  in  the  codes  of 
Gregory,  Hermogenes,  and  Justinian.  All  codifi- 
cations are  integrations;  and  so  universal  is  liti- 
gation, that  codification  upon  codification  is  con- 
stantly made;  nearly  ever}'  dispute  between  man 
and  man  being  now  brought  into  court. 

(c)  The  Pohit  of  Unilij.  Here,  as  at  all  times,  the 
complexity  of  material  causes  and  the  complexity 
of  moral  causes  are  the  same  in  some  principle 
common  to  both.  What  is  that  principle?  The 
integration  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  produce  water, 
a  substance  that  is  neither,  but  chemically  both. 
So  in  moral  law.  Two  individuals,  in  associating, 
mingle  their  rights  and  form  a  third,  including  the 
individual  rights  of  both,  but  exclusively  the  right 
of  neither.  The  right  of  the  two,  when  associ- 
ated, is  as  much  a  new  right  as  a  drop  of  water  is 
a  new  substance.  The  moral  and  the  material 
chemistry  is  the  same.  But  notice  that  I  do  not 
say  that  moral  law  is  created  by  moral  relations, 
only  that  it  then  appears.     The  unity  of  material 


36  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

and  moral  law  is  in  the  nnity  of  plan,  or,  rather, 
the  nnit}^  of  all  law  is  in  the  unity  of  the  idea  of 
all  law.  Matter  integrates  and  makes  the  world 
of  matter.  Moral  principles  integrate  and  make 
the  laws  of  conduct.  The  integration  of  one  is 
one  with  the  integration  of  the  other. 

But  supplemental  to  this  we  see  the  unity  of 
law  in  the  further  fact  that 

2.    ALL  CAUSES  MULTIPLY  THEIR  EFFECTS. 

(«)  llaferlal  Causes.  Universally,  the  effect  is 
more  complex  than  the  cause.  Light  a  candle, 
and  you  have  heat,  light,  carbonic  acid,  water, 
and  divers  colors.  Throw  a  pebble  in  the  ocean, 
and  you  move  every  drop  in  its  awful  fullness. 
Kaise  your  hand  or  whisper  a  word,  and  you  stir 
all  the  atmosphere  that  surrounds  our  globe.  If 
law  be  a  cause,  we  see  the  law  of  gravitation  pro- 
duce many  eflfects  in  the  water  gathered  in  the 
mountain-tops.  As  it  gravitates  down  through 
the  gorges,  it  gathers  the  materials  for  the  ma- 
sonry of  its  channel  in  the  })lains  below.  It 
abrades  from  the  hillsides  fragments  of  stone, 
picks  up  the  sand  and  washes  out  the  earth,  carry- 


CAUSES  MULTIPLY   EFFECTS.  37 

ing  all  in  solution,  until  a  less  precipitous  flow 
weakens  its  momentum.  Then  begins,  from  tiie 
one  law  of  gravitation,  a  multiplicity  of  efi'ects, 
calling  out  other  laws.  Gravitation  pulls  down  its 
heaviest  material  along  the  margin,  where  the 
current  begins  to  weaken.  The  masonry  here  is 
wonderfully  perfect.  Every  pebble  is  laid  exactly 
where  the  strength  of  the  future  bank  of  the  river 
will  most  need  it.  Pebble  is  laid  on  pebble  for 
years,  it  may  be  for  centuries — for  nature  keeps 
no  chronology — until  the  waters  have  walled  them- 
selves in,  leaving  the  plains  on  either  side  as  a 
home  for  man. 

The  second  effect  of  gravitation,  as  it  pulls  the 
waters  down  the  mountain-side,  after  it  has  sur- 
rendered the  pebble  to  form  the  wall  of  the  bank, 
is  to  carry  the  lighter  sand  a  little  more  to  the  side, 
and  drop  it  behind  the  pebbles,  as  a  parallel  and 
supporting  buttress. 

The  third  effect  is  to  carry  the  lighter  soil  still 
further  back,  and  form  a  bank  of  earth  behind 
both  the  former;  thus  building  for  itself  its  own 
pathway  to  the  receiving  sea.  Here  are  different, 
but  consistent,  effects  from  the  same  law. 


38  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Again,  tlie  sun  shines  on  a  field  where  both 
tares  and  wheat  are  sown.  The  same  cause  pro- 
duces efiects  specifically  difierent.  It  quickens 
both  the  tare  and  the  wheat. 

Again,  one  grain  of  wheat  will  produce  mani- 
fold other  grains.  This  Avlieat  becomes  food;  this 
food  nourishes  brain,  this  brain  sustains  the  song 
of  the  poet,  the  eloquence  of  the  orator,  and  the 
thought  of  the  statesman.  One  case  of  infectious 
disease  flies  from  man  to  man,  until  a  dreadful 
epidemic  lays  towns,  cities,  and  states  in  the 
grave.  How  trivial  often  the  cause  of  disasters, 
and  yet  how  multiplied  the  effects.  From  one 
little  cell,  life  is  said  to  continue  itself  through  all 
living  forms.  From  the  monotony  of  the  inor- 
ganic mineral  arose  the  innumerable  vegetable 
life,  with  its  marvelous  functions  of  inhalation  and 
exhalation,  the  chemistry  of  its  assimilative  powers, 
its  beautiful  forms,  and  tlie  utilities  of  its  fibrous 
substance.  With  it  man  builds  the  palace  and 
the  ship,  tiie  temple  of  worship  and  tlio  don  of 
despair,  the  forum  of  the  law  and  the  throne  of 
authority.  Indeed,  to  s^^ocif}'  the  manifold  effects 
of  a  cause  would   bo  to  i2;ive  a  catalo<>;ue  of  tlie 


MORAL   CAUSES  MULTIPLY  EFFECTS.  39 

number  and  spleiulor  of  all  phenomena — of  heat, 
light,  electricity;  and  of  all  forms,  colors,  sound, 
and  motion. 

(&)  Moral  Causes.  As  in  matter,  so  in  morals. 
Moral  effects  from  moral  causes  are  prodigiously 
multiplied.  Mackintosh  and  Buckle  would  have  us 
believe  the  contrary;  but  they  lose  sight  of  the  fact 
that,  while  the  theoretical  morality  of  each  man  is 
left  to  self-culture  and  the  teachings  of  religion 
and  the  philosophers,  his  practical  morality,  as  it 
applies  to  his  relations  to  his  fellow-man,  is  taught 
him  by  municipal  law  and  the  courts;  and  there  is 
nothing  stationary  in  the  teachings  of  these. 

Society,  as  it  grows  older,  and  as  new  relations 
and  questions  arise,  more  and  more  prescribes  and 
enforces  moral  conduct.  In  nothing  does  civiliza- 
tion show  less  stagnation  and  more  advance,  than 
in  the  growing  perfection  of  its  law;  absorbing  and 
adjudicating,  from  age  to  age,  the  moral  senti- 
ments of  mankind.  Rome  is  still  potential  through 
her  system  of  civil  morality  as  thought  out  by  her 
jurisconsults  and  adjudicated  by  her  pmetors. 
Law  being  law  only  as  it  is  morality,  no  one  can 
say,  in  the  presence  of  its  voluminous  bod}',  that 


40  THE    UNITY    OF    LAW. 

moral  ideas  are  stationary.  Account  for  it  as  you 
may,  wiietlier  by  the  influence  of  great  religious  or 
general  intellectual  culture,  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  of  great  lawyers  are  so  many  great  mor- 
alists, and  show  that  moral  science  is  the  true  and 
ever  enlarging  basis  of  law  and  of  a  true  civiliza- 
tion. The  highest  happiness  of  mankind  lives 
along  moral  lines;  and,  as  everything  seeks  its  own 
perfection,  so  moral  ideas  must  grow  more  and  more 
enlightened  and  more  universal. 

To  show  how  moral  causes  multiply  moral  effects, 
take  any  one  act  of  life.  On  the  making  of  a  prom- 
issory note,  the  drawing  of  a  bill  of  exchange, 
there  arises,  with  and  in  the  act,  a  whole  volume  of 
moral  rules  called  laws.  The  principle  of  right- 
ness  at  once  regulates  its  parties,  their  compe- 
tency, rights,  duties,  and  obligations.  The  con- 
science of  the  law  looks  well  to  the  value  of  i^s 
consideration.  Then  there  is  the  moral  obligation 
of  its  acceptance,  or  its  protest  for  uou-acceptance, 
if  a  bill  of  exchange.  There  is  punishment  for  its 
forgery,  and  help  in  the  event  of  its  loss.  If  one 
receive  a  little  package  to  carry  for  hire,  instantly 
that  act  is  covered  by  many  laws  looking  to  the 


EVENTS  BRING  THEIR  OWN  LAWS.  41 

rights  of  owners  and  tlie  responsibility  of  the  car- 
rier. If  you  speak  of  another's  fair  fame,  hiw 
warns  you  to  guard,  your  lips.  If  you  build  a 
house,  the  law  makes  it  your  castle,  giving  you 
certain  rights  of  defense.  Laws  forbidding  burg- 
lary and  arson  at  once  come  to  protect  it. 

(c)  The  Point  of  Utiity.  The  intention  to  go  on 
and  out  of  itself,  is  seen  in  an  atom  of  matter  and 
in  a  principle  of  morals.  Each  is  instinct  with  the 
desire,  so  to  speak,  and  is  distinguished  by  the  act, 
of  imparting  or  giving  itself  away  to  something 
else.  An  atom  is  not  an  orphan  or  friendless,  or 
without  the  sympathy  of  other  atoms.  As  the 
acorn  produces  many  oaks,  the  fountain  produces 
many,  streams,  the  sun  giv-es  out  many  rays,  and 
from  ancestors  descend  many  heirs,  so  no  right  is 
solitary  or  barren;  but  rights  beget  rights,  and 
duties  beget  duties.  The  law  of  ownership  begets 
the  law  against  trespass  and  against  larceny.  As 
no  atom  can  be  an  outlaw,  so  law  is  multiplied  as 
relations  are  multiplied.  Indeed,  the  law  of  a 
thing  is  inseparably  in  the  thing  itself.  As  the 
universe  is  filled  with  things,  so  is  it  filled  with 
law.  Are  not  all  these  laws  one,  if  their  idea  be 
one  ? 


42  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

But  still  more  do  the  principles  of  material  sci- 
ence show  their  identity  with  moral  principles  in 

3.  THE  FACT  AND  LAW  OF  SEGREGATION. 

(«)  JJaterial  Segregation.. — We  mean  by  segrega- 
tion, not  the  importance  of  any  one  thing  abstractly 
by  itself,  but  the  concrete  importance  of  one  thing 
as  related  to  every  other  thing.  In  the  material 
world  every  atom  is  a  help  to  every  other  atom. 
Things  are  different;  but  they  are  dependent. 
Concord  needs  discords.  There  must  be  contrasts, 
as  well  as  analogies.  In  colors,  the  mind  could 
not  endure  monotony.  Suppose  there  were  but 
one  color — everything  were  bkie,  yellow,  or  red — 
the  universe  would  be  intolerable.  So  in  forms, 
the  more  varieties,  the  more  individualities,  the 
more  pleasure  we  derive  therefrom. 

This  is  not  a  movement  of  antipathy,  but  of 
sympathy;  not  of  aristocracy,  but  of  fraternity; 
not  of  ajffinity,  but  of  association.  In  integration, 
things  are  not  related,  but  combined  and  assimi- 
lated. In  segregation  there  is  relation  and  mutual 
help.  In  material  segregation,  like  things  go  to 
like.     Shuilis  shuili  gaudel.     The  law  here  is  sym- 


EACH   LAW   IMPOKTANT.  43 

patliy,  not,  affinity.  The  resnlt  is  association,  not 
a  compound.  Things  are  together,  not  one.  It 
is  not  integration,  but  segregation;  not  oneness, 
but  unity.  Antipatliy  forbids  like  things  to  be- 
come one  with  unlilce.  The  dove  flies  from  the 
hawk;  men  and  vipers  cannot  sleep  in  the  same 
bed.  The  wind  lifts  the  chaff  into  a  cloud  by 
itself,  and  leaves  the  wheat  in  a  mass  by  itself. 
Species  stay  witli  species,  and  genus  with  genus. 
When  unlike  things  attract  each  other,  as  oxygen 
and  hydrogen,  by  the  creative  or  integrating  law 
of  chemical  affinity,  they  drop  their  individuality 
and  become  something  else.  In  segregation,  every 
individual  is  distinct  and  separate  in  character, 
but  joined  in  purpose  with  something  else. 

(h)  Bloral  Segregation.  The  importance  of  any 
one  law  is  seen  in  the  confusion  that  would  result 
if  other  laws  did  not  exist.  If  laws  arise,  they 
must  be  interpreted  and  executed.  Each  depart- 
ment is  dependent  on  the  other.  The  executive  is 
useless  without  the  legislative,  and  the  legislative 
without  the  executive.  It  is  useless  to  declare  a 
right  unless  it  be  protected  and  enforced.  The 
law  of  property  necessitates  the  law  of  penalties. 


44  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

The  declaratory  and  the  vindicatory  are  mutually 
dependent  on  each  other. 

(c)  Ihe  Point  of  Unity  between  material  and 
moral  segregation  is  in  the  fact  of  universal  de- 
pendence and  the  law  of  universal  help.  Every- 
thing, as  we  have  said,  depends  upon  every  other 
thing,  atom  upon  atom,  principle  on  principle, 
and  all  on  something  beyond  them.  Each  link  of 
the  chain  that  hangs  must  hang  from  the  same 
thing.  If  everything  is  under  any  one  thing,  in 
that  one  thing  is  unit3\  Helpfulness  is  omnipres- 
ent in  matter,  and  helpfulness  is  omnipresent  in 
mind  and  morals,  and  in  the  omnipresence  of  help- 
fulness is  the  unity  of  material  and  moral  laws. 

i.    EVOLUTION  OF  THE  ETHICS  OF  LEGAL  CHARACTEK. 

After  applying  all  these  principles  to  the  study 
of  the  ethics  of  law  itself,  you  will  observe  that 
legal  character  is  formed  under: 

(a)   livo  laics  of  condition. 

i.  The  first  law  of  condition  is  one  of  heredity; 
or  what  we  are  from  our  ancestors,  as  gifts,  or  the 
Avant  of  gifts,  moral  bias  or  immoral  bias,  harmo- 


LAWS   OF   CONDITION   AND   DIRECTION.  45 

nizing  or  antagonizing  elements  of  nature.  As  a 
rule,  gifts  are  a  personal  trust,  and  die  with  their 
possessor.^ 

ii.  The  second  law  of  conditions  is  one  of  environ- 
ment or  assimilation,  pertaining  to  what  you  absorb 
from  your  circumstances  and  education.  You  are 
maturing  under  influences  that  assist  or  retard  your 
best  development.  It  is  not  sufficient  that  you  be 
educated  only  on  your  intellectual  side.  The  great 
criminals  of  the  day  are  not  intellectually  defi- 
cient. You  will  need  to  drink  deep  of  the  fountain 
of  eternal  and  essential  right  whence  come  all  laws, 
written  and  unwritten,  material  and  moral,  in 
order  to  possess  the  key  to  unlock  all  legal  prob- 
lems submitted  for  your  solution.  A  lawj'er  with 
a  knowledge  only  of  rules  is  like  a  pauper  on  a 
crutch;  but  he  who  is  enlightened  by  the  highest 
principles  is  like  a  prince  on  a  throne. 

(6)  Two  laws  or  lines  of  direction,  (i.)  One  law  of 
direction,  for  the  will,  like  that  of  all.  force,  is  in 
the  line  of  the  least  resistance.  Two  classes  are 
in  this  direction — those  indolent  candidates  who 
could,  but  will  not,  attempt  the  best  thiugs,  and 
(a)    See  Lect.  IV. 


46  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

those  incapable  candidates  who  woukl,  but  cannot, 
force  results.  Both  of  these  shun  the  difficult,  , 
the  troublesome,  the  voluminous.  They  float  with 
the  current,  or  drift  with  the  wind.  The}^  are  the 
creatures  of  mere  circumstances,  and  generally  of 
the  worst.  They  hang  upon. all  professions,  look- 
ing wistfully  toward  success,  but  taking  no  step  of 
their  own  accord  toward  it — a  sort  of  professional 
sponges  and  parasites. 

if.  Another  law  of  direction  is  in  the  line  of  the 
greatest  attraction.  Some  are  resolute  men,  for  the 
most  part  of  the  best  motives,  having  high  aims  for 
the  sake  of  high  ends.  They  possess  natures  with  in- 
tellectual and  moral  aptitudes,  growing  under  high 
moral  influences,  seeking  the  right  in  all  purposes, 
and  learning  the  right  from  all  experiences.  These 
are  the  men  most  trusted  and  most  potential. 
Scum  that  boils  to  the  surface,  is  soon  skimmed 
off.  In  the  end,  it  may  be  a  distant  one,  the  right 
man  gets  into  the  right  place.  The  class  of  men 
drifting  in  the  line  of  the  least  resistance  mag- 
nifies the  obstacles  of  life  more  than  the  end;  but 
the  other  class,  acting  under  the  force  of  the 
greatest  attraction,  magnifies  the  einf,  the  reward, 


A  lawyer's  moral  convictions.  47 

the  compensatious  of  life,  more  than  the  inter- 
vening obstacles.  One  is  easily  discouraged,  and 
gives  up;  the  other  is  brave  and  struggles  on. 
One  class  yields  to  circumstances;  the  other  makes 
circumstances  yield  to  it.  One  lives  only  for  the 
present;  the  other  for  the  future  as  well.  One  is 
fickle  of  purpose  and  irregular  in  application;  the 
other  is  persistent  in  both  intention  and  effort. 
The  resolute  will  accomplish  something;  the  irres- 
olute will  fail  in  all.  At  the  fiftieth  parallel  of 
north  latitude  are  said  to  be  two  springs  of  water. 
One  flows  westerly  to  the  Pacific;  the  other  east- 
erly to  the  Gulf.  The  one  you  take  at  the  start 
determines  your  end. 

A  bad  beginning  no  more  promises  a  good  end- 
ing than  the  sowing  of  tares  promises  a  harvest  of 
wheat.  A  man  of  base  convictions  may  be  a  stu- 
dent, but  he  cannot  be  a  lawyer.  His  success,  if  any, 
will  rest  upon  his  use,  as  his  own,  of  the  average 
moral  sentiments  of  society.  His  conscience  will 
be  a  professional,  not  a  personal  one.  You  will 
certainly  know  law  the  best  when,  by  the  moral 
quality  of  your  feelings,  the  breadth  of  j^our  en- 
lightenment,   and   the   clearness   of  your   mental 


48  THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 

perceptions,  you  know  most  of  moral  principles. 
Cold  logic  will  help  the  mind  into  sharpness,  but 
courts,  juries  and  the  public  soon  distrust  a  man 
morally  deficient.  The  disadvantage  of  such  defi- 
ciency is  so  soon  discovered  by  a  candidate  for 
legal  success,  that  he  early  learns  to  assume  a  con- 
science, if  he  have  it  not.  Without  an  average 
honesty,  continued  success  would  be  anomalous — 
indeed,  impossible.  Nothing  unconscionable  is 
lawful.  Some  competitors  Avill  surpass  others. 
Some  individual  trees  are  tall  and  stately;  others 
dwarfed  and  shapeless.  So  in  the  profession  of 
the  law.  Some  morally  and  intellectually  well- 
furnished  men  will  master  both  legal  rules  and 
principles,  and  make  the  law  an  honorable  pro- 
fession; others,  less  able,  less  diligent,  and  with 
motives  less  excellent,  will  content  themselves 
with  a  knowledge  of  tlie  mere  rules,  and  make 
themselves  mere  practitioners,  and  the  law  only  a 
respectable  trade;  while  others,  fortunately  few  in 
number,  will  pervert  whatever  they  may  know  of 
cither  rule  or  principle,  and  sink  to  the  contempt 
of  the  pettifogger,  and  degrade  law  to  a  cheat.  As 
lawyers  have  practically  shaped  all  civilization  from 


THE  UNITY  OF  MENTAL  TOWER.        49 

the  promulgation  of  the  code  of  Solon  to  the  age 
of  the  jurisconsults^  so  they  will  and  must  here- 
after. The  world  honors  the  true  lawyer,  because 
the  true  lawyer  honors  the  world. 

Under  this  law  of  professional  segregation,  by 
which  the  best  comes  to  the  front,  labor  of  all 
kinds  tends  to  specialty.  The  many  combine. 
Every  man  concentrates  his  powers.  Everything 
is  in  a  rythmic  or  wavy  flow  from  confusion  to 
system.  Nature  re-arranges  to  improve,  and  di- 
vides to  perfect.  All  things  came  from  one;  and 
the  Buddhists  say  that  all  things  will  be  absorbed 
back  into  one.  The  distinction  of  many  things 
combined  is  strength — of  one  thing  by  itself,  is 
perfection.  We  see  this  principle  exemplified  in 
the  divisions  of  the  trades  and  professions.  The 
shoemaker,  the  hatter,  the  tailor,  the  wagon-maker 
— these  are  all  segregations  for  the  sake  of  excep- 
tional skill.  As  every  cause  is  selective,  and  every 
efitect  is  particular,  so  in  medicine  we  have  physi- 
cians, surgeons,  and  minor  surgeons;  in  law  we 
have  special  application  to  constitutional  law,  to 
criminal  law,  to  probate  law,  to  commercial  law. 
Concentration  is  power,  and  power  is  success. 


50  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

The  lawyer's  individuality  is  active  in  building 
up  the  lawyer's  character.  The  lawyer  is  like  a 
city  that  is  set  on  a  hill.  He  cannot  be  hid.  His 
individuality  is  pronounced.  No  man  is  more 
exactly  measured.  He  is  individualized  by  his 
attainments.  In  the  thousand  and  one  arguments 
before  the  courts  and  juries,  he  will  reveal  himself. 
The  wealth  and  the  strength  of  a  well-furnished 
mind  will  appear,  and  nothing  can  conceal  the 
poverty  and  the  weakness  of  a  mind  unfurnished. 
But  tiie  lawyer  must  have  far  more  than  mere 
mental  culture.  Without  this  it  is  useless  for  him 
to  begin;  but  without  the  moral,  it  would  be  better 
for  him  and  for  society,  that  he  should  not  go  on. 
There  is  nothing  more  sacred  than  justice  which  he 
is  to  promote  or  pervert.  From  false  moral  ideas, 
Avhat  wrong,  public  or  private,  is  not  self-persuaded 
of  its  justice?  With  a  cadence  of  emphasis,  from 
the  legal  forum  to  the  conscience  of  the  traitor  and 
of  the  petty  criminal,  wrong  justifies  itself.  For 
this  reason,  Socrates  placed  all  wrong  in  ignorance; 
claiming  that  all  men  would  do  right,  if  they  knew 
Avhat  it  is.  The  revolutionary  effort  to  ascertain 
and  uliectuate  public  justice,   is  at  the  bottom  of 


WHAT   IS   A    LEGAL    KIGHT.  61 

all  public  disturbance.  Thirty-six  billions  of  lives 
have  been  sacriticecl  to  buiid  up  some  sort  of  right. 
The  Plebeian  seceded  to  Mons  Sacer  for  justice. 
In  the  name  of  right,  Brutus  slew  Caesar  in  the 
capitol.  In  the  name  of  justice,  the  mass  seeks 
to  divide  the  property  of  the  few.  It  is  for  right 
or  justice  that  society  aggregates  and  governments 
are  formed.  Confronting  armies  each-  claim  the 
right;  and  millions  are  in  all  grades  of  struggle, 
and  die  for  wrong,  devoutly  persuaded  of  the  right. 
It  is  of  first  importance,  then,  that  instruction 
upon  the  rightness  of  things — justice,  moralit}-, 
ethics,  or  by  whatever  name  you  designate  that 
which  ought  to  he — should  be  given  to  successive 
generations;  that,  if  possible,  in  the  course  of 
years,  an  induction  of  right  conditions  may  furnish 
the  world  with  a  science  of  moral  truth  for  prac- 
tical life.-''  The  background  of  all  law  is  essential 
rightness,  or  ethics.  There  is,  therefore,  no  men- 
tal preparation  of  the  lawyer  paramount  to  that  of 
his  moral  convictions.  A  wicked  priest  at  his  altar 
is  not  more  false  to  his  place  and  profession  than 
is  a  lawyer  of  an  immoral  conscience  in  society  and 
before  the  courts.     A.  lawyer  must  claim  the  sup- 

(a)  Cicero's  Laws,  Bk.  II.  V. 


52  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

port  of  some  accepted  theory  of  morals  for  the  law 
of  his  case.  No  court  would  listen  to  an  argument 
to  sustain  a  contract  made  contra  honos  mores. 
Shylock  had  a  fierce  sense  of  the  obligation  of  law. 
He  fancied  that  before  the  law  a  contract  was  a 
contract;  and  if  he  could  but  get  the  forfeiture 
of  a  pound  of  flesh  nominated  in  the  bond  of  his 
debtor,  the  law  would  put  in  his  hands  the  life  of 
the  one  he  hated.  But  he  misunderstood  that  the 
ethical  basis  of  law  was  humanity — as  man's  high- 
est right  and  duty.  The  law  never  offers  its  serv- 
ice to  the  revengeful.  The  law  is  true  when  all 
else  is  false;  it  is  strong  when  all  else  is  weak;  it 
is  sacred  when  all  else  is  vile.  The  immoral  is 
never  legal.  It  is  not  supposable  that  the  legisla- 
ture would  require,  or  the  courts  enforce,  any 
agreement  for  an  act  mala  in  se.  Wagers,  gam- 
bling debts,  have  noplace  before  the  law;  and  you 
may  be  sure  that  nothing  is  lawful  that  offends  the 
moral  sense  of  an  enlightened  and  disinterested 
mind.  He  who  is  not  sure  of  a  good  conscience  is 
out  of  place  at  the  bar.  Better  not  learn  the  law 
tlian  learn  to  [)orvcrt  it.  A  great  lawyer  is  a  great 
priest  to  civilization,  and  the  corrupt  arc  its  ex- 
ecrable curse. 


LECTUEE  11. 
CORRELATION  IN  MATTER  AND  IN  MORALITY. 

I.  Correlation  as  a  Method. 
II.  Correlation  as  a  State. 
III.  Correlation  as  a  Movement: 

1.  Direct  Correlation — - 

(a)  Matter  force; 

(b)  Moral  force. 

2.  Inverse  Correlation — 

(a)  Matter  force; 
{h)   Moral  force. 

The  evolution  of  matter  and  morality  discussed 
in  the  last  lecture,  which  held  things  and  princi- 
ples to  have  the  same  inscrutable  origin,  considered 
what  phenomena  of  all  kinds  are  or  become  in 
themselves  from  inside  energies;  but,  in  correla- 
tion now  to  be  mentioned,  we  look  at  what  things 
and  events  are,  or  become,  in  their  relations  to 
others.  Everything  is  related,  but  everything  is 
not  correlated.  Without  mutuality  or  recipro- 
cality_there  is  a  mere  relation  in  time  and  space 


54  THE    UNITY    OF    LAW. 

between  a  stone  and  a  chair  or  between  a  mount- 
ain and  a  star;  but  there  is  correhition  when,  by  a 
fixed  hiw,  things  follow  as  consequence  in  cause 
and  eflect,  or  co-exist  in  pairs,  as  husband  and 
wife,  or  as  uniform  sequence  in  light  and  dark- 
ness. In  other  words,  correlation  is  either  a 
method,  a  slate,  ov  a.  movement. 

I.    COEEELATION  AS  A  METHOD. 

The  most  terrible  certainty  in  all  the  economy 
of  nature  is  the  law  of  equivalence.  Correlation 
is  its  method,  which  we  are  to  consider  to-day. 
The  light  of  science  that  reveals  the  behavior  of 
forces  in  matter  also  unveils  and  emphasizes  the 
awful  law  of  moral  exchanges.  For  so  much  wrong, 
we  get  an  equivalence  of  suffering.  But  if  we 
measure  the  moral  magnitude  of  the  cause  by  the 
multiplicity  of  its  effects,  and  their  undying  con- 
tinuance, we  shall  see  that  though  a  cause  is  one 
thing,  it  is  vast.  In  physics,  we  can  see  so  much 
of  one  force  given  for  another;  but  in  moral  move- 
ments the  equivalence  of  a  wrong  is  never  full. 
Men  reap  one  huntlrod  grains  for  the  one  they  sow. 
That  which  we  measure  to  others,  they  measure  to 
us  again ;  good  measure,  pressed  down,  and  running 
over,  is  surely  returned  to  us. 


PUNISHMENT  CERTAIN.  55 

The  nature  of  things,  as  seen  in  correhition, 
admits  of  no  escape.  Nature  may  heal  the  wound 
you  make,  but  she  Avill  mark  its  place  with  a  scar. 
If  you  injure  moral  character,  like  footprints  in 
the  snow,  it  can  never  be  smooth  again.  The  one 
sin  of  woman  has  its  equivalence  in  an  outcast's 
life.  The  law  of  heredity  perpetuates  ancestral 
disease  to  remote  generations.  The  dishonest 
tricks  of  a  lawyer  equivalate  themselves  in  uni- 
versal and  irreversible  distrust.  Men  erect  for 
themselves  moral  tombs  or  moral  thrones,  and 
each  act  is  a  block  in  the  structure  built  without 
hands.  Consequences  are  remorseless  demons; 
and,  as  has  been  so  beautifully  said,  are  as  much 
beyond  our  control  as  are  a  handful  of  feathers 
which  3'ou  scatter  to  the  winds. 

II.    CORKELATION  AS  A  STATE. 

Things  are  related  as  unconnected  parts  of  a 
connected  whole,  such  as  is  the  relation  of  sea, 
house,  tree;  or  they  are  correlated,  as  we  have  said, 
into  co-existing  and  inseparable  pairs.  Heraclitus 
taught  that  nothing  exists  without  its  contrary, 
and  that  to  speak  of  one  is  to  suggest  its  opposite. 


56  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Pythagoras  and  Aristotle  mention  ten  of  these 
pairs : 

Finite  and  Infinite,  Kest  and  Motion, 

Odd  and  Even,  Straight  and  Crooked, 

Unity  and  Plurality,  Light  and  Darkness, 

Male  and  Female,  Good  and  Bad, 

Eight  and  Left,  Square  and  Oblong. 

These  co-existing  pairs  are  sometimes  of  persons, 
as  husband  and  wife,  parent  and  chikl,  guardian 
and  ward,  master  and  servant,  vendor  and  vendee, 
buyer  and  seller,  and  mortgagor  and  mortgagee; 
sometimes  in  pairs  of  co-existing  forms,  as  con- 
cavity and  convexity;  or  of  quantity,  as  much  and 
little,  plus  and  minus;  or  of  attributes,  as  straight 
and  crooked;  or  of  direction,  as  up  and  down. 
Thus  we  see  that,  in  correlative  states,  pairs  of 
dissimilar  things  must  co-exist,  and  that  the  men- 
tion of  one  of  the  pair  suggests  the  existence  of 
the  other.  The  husband  ceases  to  be  husband 
when  the  wife  dies.  Without  a  child  there  can  be 
no  parent,  without  a  servant  no  master.  Take 
away  one  of  the  two  parallel  lines,  and  the  other 
is  no  longer  a  parallel,  as  a  line  cannot  be  parallel 
to  itself.  As  the  describing  of  a  curved  line 
makes  one  side  concave  and  the  other  convex,  so 
tlio  obliteration  of  that  curved  lino  obliterates 
both  the  concavity  and  the  convexity. 


DIRECT  CORRELATION. 


57 


III.  IN  CORRELATION  AS  A  MOVEMENT, 

One  thing  is  as  another  is,  like  hibor  and  wages; 
or  one  thing  is  as  another  is  not,  like  right  and 
wrong;  in  other  words,  correlation  as  a  movement 
is  direct  or  inverse. 

1.  Direct  or  Mataal  correlation  takes  place  when 
any  two  quantities,  qualities,  or  forces  increase  or 
decrease  together  in  the  same  ratio.  Thus  time 
varies  directly  as  Avages;  that  is,  the  greater  time 
the  greater  wages,  and  the  less  time  the  less  wages. '"^ 

(a)  lu  tliis  law  of  direct  correlation  the  minimum  of  one  thin<T 
is  the  minimum  of  its  companion  force,  and  the  maximum  of  one 
is  the  maximum  of  tlie  other;  botli  increasing  or  decreasincr  ia 
the  same  ratio. 

Fig.  1. 
Minimum. 


Minimum. 


58  THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 

(«)  hi  Matter  force  it  is  a  demonstrated  principle 
that  action  and  reaction  are  equal  and  opposite.  Ex- 
actly as  your  finger  presses  the  table,  the  table 
presses  your  finger.  That  which  you  strike,  strikes 
3'ou  back.  If  you  disappoint  the  moral  sense  of 
society,  the  moral  sense  of  society  will  disappoint 
you.  As  your  hand  warms  the  maible,  so  the 
marble  cools  your  hand.  The  gun  with  which  you 
kill  the  bird  before  it,  recoils  and  bruises  you  be- 
hind it.  We  cannot  electrize  a  substance  without 
magnetizing  it,  nor  magnetize  a  substance  without 
electrizing  it.  Before  the  laws  of  matter  everything 
is  equal.  Nature  enforces  obedience.  Every 
atom  protects  itself,  instantly  arresting,  judging, 
and  punishing  each  offender  against  its  rights. 
Man  cannot  lie  to  Nature,  nor  extort  upon  her,  nor 
rob  her.  Her  motto  is,  semper  fidelis,  semper 
paratiis. 

(h)  In  31oral  forces  this  direct  correlation  is  no 
less  evident.  These  antitheses  and  syntheses  of 
forces  are  seen  iu  the  movement  of  demand  and 
supply;  in  credit  and  debit;  and  in  cause  and  effect. 
Some  things  arc  inverse  as  to  one  movement  and 
direct  as  to  another.  For  instance,  religion  is  in- 
verse as  to  immorality,  and  direct  as  to  morality. 
Labor  is  inversely  as  to  povorly,  but  directly  as  to 


INVERSE.  CORRELATION.  59 

wages.  Velocity  is  directly  as  to  force,  and  in- 
versely as  to  time.  Law  is  inversely  as  to  mor- 
ality, but  directly  as  to  crime.  Civilization, 
generally,  is  directly  as  to  worship  and  knowledge, 
and  inversely  as  to  ignorance  and  irreligion.  Pas- 
sion correlates  itself  in  a  corresponding  expression. 
Anger  is  violent,  grief  weeps,  pleasure  smiles,  and 
liope  rejoices.  Persecution  and  oY)pression  beget 
resistance,  and  injury  correlates  itself  in  revenge. 
The  more  alcohol  the  more  is  tlie  intoxication. 
Food  correlates  itself  in  strength.  The  rose  pays 
its  debt  to  the  sun,  in  its  perfume  and  color.  Vice 
lias  its  exact  equivalent  in  loss  of  character,  and 
known  fraud,  in  loss  of  credit  and  business. 

2.  Correlation  as  a  movement  is  inverse  where 
dissimilar  qualities  or  forces  are  so  related  that 
when  one  is  increased  by  any  law  of  change,  the 
other  shall  equivalently  decrease  by  the  same  law." 

In  the  former  lecture  on  the  unity  of  law,  it  was 
intended  to  show,  through  the  law  of  segregation, 
how  one  thing  is  not  another,  bnt,  like  gravitation, 
remains  apart  unchanged,  so  the  jDurpose  of  this 
lecture  is  to  show,  through  the  laws  of  inverse  cor- 

(a)  In  this  law  of  inverse  correlation,  the  maximiun  of  one 
thing  is  the  minimum  of  its  opposite.  The  horizontal  lines  cross- 
ing tlic  diagonal,  in  the   figure   below,  illustrate  the  initial  and 


60 


THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 


relation  or  conversion,  liow  one  force  seems  to  be- 
come or  be  converted  into  another.  The  process 
is  rather  disphicement  and  substitution  than  con- 
version. It  is  transposition  as  distinguished  from 
transmutation,  but  it  is  substitution  rather  than 
either.  It  is  one  thing  for  another.  But  as  nei- 
ther of  the  co-existing  pairs  we  have  mentioned 
can  be  absent  at  the  same  time,  so  now,  in  inverse 
correlative  movement,  both  reciprocal  energies 
cannot  be  present  at  the  same  moment. 

final  quantity  of  forces  inversely  correlative,  lengthening  on  one 
side  as  they  shorten  on  the  other. 

Fiti.  2. 
Maximum. 


Minimum. 


Resistance. 


Heat. 


Religion. 


Velocity. 

> 
a 

Hi  Electricity. 

o 
1 
o 

Ininiorality. 
Minimum. 


Maximum. 


SHAKESrEARE's   CORRELATION.  61 

Herbert  Spencer  says  that  "one  force,  in  giving 
origin  to  the  next,  is  itself  expended  or  ceases  to 
exist  as  such."  We  must  be  careful  to  remember 
that  the  force  which  expires  may  be  a  cause  or 
only  an  antecedent  to  the  one  that  survives  or 
takes  its  place.  We  cannot  say  that  heat  causes 
electricity,  but  only  that  so  much  of  one  goes  as  so 
much  of  the  other  comes.  When  a  virtuous  man 
is  perverted  into  a  vicious  man,  his  virtues  are  not 
a  cause  of  his  vices;  or  when  a  vicious  man  is  con- 
verted into  virtue,  his  vices  are  not  a  cause  of  his 
virtues.  When  day  precedes  the  night,  the  day  is 
not  the  cause  of  the  night,  nor  night  an  effect  of 
the  day  because  it  follows  the  day.  The  horse  is 
not  a  cause  of  the  cart  because  it  is  before  it,  nor 

Shakespeare  expresses  this  correhxtion,  in  the  play  of  ' '  Corio- 
lanus,"  when  Autidias  says: 

"  One  fire  drives  out  one  fire;  one  nail,  one  nail; 
Eights  by  rights  foiled,  strengths  by  strengths  do  fail." 
Benvolio  tells  Tlomeo: 

"  One  fire  burns  out  another's  burning; 

One  pain  is  lessened  Ijy  another's  anguish; 
Turn  giddy,  and  be  holp  by  backward  turning; 
One  desperate  grief  cures  with  another's  languish. 
Take  thou  some  new  infection  to  thine  eye, 
And  the  rank  poison  of  the  old  will  die. " 
Lear  tells  Kent: 

"  Where  the  greater  malady  is  fixed, 
The  lesser  is  scarce  felt." 
And  so  Virgil,  when  he  says,  "  l/no  avuho  non  dejicit  alter: 
Where  one  thing  is  absent,  another  takes  its  place. " 


G2  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

the  cart  an  effect  of  the  horse  because  it  follows 
the  liorse.  Substitution  is  not  causation.  Se- 
quences are  not  consequences.  But  there  is  a  cor- 
relative movement  in  the  dropping  of  the  sand  in 
the  hour-glass,  from  the  upper  chamber  to  the 
lower;  unless  one  be  emptied,  the  othej-  cannot 
be  filled.  The  chain  that  pulls  up  a  full  bucket 
lets  down  an  empty  one.  The  rod  dropped  from 
the  hand  of  Moses  became  a  serpent  on  earth. 
Exactly  as  one,  so  was  the  other.  The  unknown, 
quantity  of  the  equation  is  ever  transferring  or 
correlating  itself  into  the  known.  Ignorance 
shrinks  as  knowledge  expands.  Both  iu  the  ma- 
terial and  moral  world,  when  one  thing  is  more, 
something  else  is  exactly  that  much  less.  The 
force  is  the  same,  the  manifestation  only  is  difier- 
ent. 

(«)  In  malk'T  force  this  inverse  correlation  takes 
place  Avhen  one  unconscious  force  exchanges  itself 
for  another,  and  acts  inversely  as  the  other  ceases. 
Herbert  Spencer  says,  that  "when  a  given  force 
ceases  to  exist  under  one  form,  an  equal  quantity 
must  come  into  existence  under  some  other  form 
or  forms."  You  cannot  both  expend  and  keep  a 
force.  The  butterfly  begins  to  live  as  the  mother- 
worm   dies.     In  the  revolutions  of  the  wheel,  one 


LIGHT  CORRELATES  WITH  SHADOWS.       03 

part  cannot  come  np  except  as  the  other  parts  go 
down.  The  grain  of  wheat  is  quickened  as  it  dies. 
"Water  leveling  itself  from  one  vessel  to  another 
decreases  its  qnantitj'  in  one  exactly  as  it  increases 
it  in  the  other.  Increasing  light  contracts  but  in- 
tensifies the  shadows.  In  other  words,  the  max- 
imum of  one  manifestation  of  force  coincides  with 
the  minimum  of  its  correlative  force.  If  you  gain 
motion  you  lose  heat,  and  as  you  gain  heat  you 
lose  motion.  Though  nature  is  always  in  debt, 
yet  she  keeps  a  careful  balance-sheet  with  exact 
and  scrupulous  honesty,  returning  what  she  bor- 
rows, and  paving  for  what  she  consumes.  In 
agriculture,  you  must  restore  to  the  soil  an  equiv- 
alent for  that  which  you  take  from  it.  If  nature 
uses  heat,  she  pays  in  electricity  or  some  other 
force;  if  she  dissipates  motion,  she  compensates 
by  integrating  matter.  In  all  action  she  pa^'s  by 
equal  and  opposite  reaction.  Nothing  is  fruitless. 
When  the  unheated  rifle-ball  strikes  the  iron  plate, 
the  plate  stops  the  ball,  flattened  and  heated.  The 
break  on  the  wheel  takes  motion  from  the  wheel, 
but  gives  it  heat  instead.  Both  the  ball  and  the 
wheel  lose  one  energy,  but  gain  another  that  is  a 
fair  equivalent.  But  a  force  and  its  equivalent  in 
reciprocal    or   inverse    correlation    are    not   both 


64  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

present  at  the  same  moment.  As  an  electrical  rod 
cannot  liave  both  positive  and  negative  electricity 
on  the  same  end;  and  as,  generally,  two  opposite 
energies  cannot  both  be  present  at  the  same  time 
and  place,  yet,  if  one  be  absent  the  other  will 
be  present.  Nature  is  vigilant  but  economical. 
When  she  uses  one  force,  she  rests  some  other. 
Like  a  relief  of  sentinels,  when  one  is  off  duty, 
another  is  on.  Correlation  shows,  as  we  have 
seen,  how  one  "matter  force,"  in  giving  origin  to 
the  next,  is  itself  expended  or  ceases  to  exist  as 
sii.ch;"  and  how  much  one  mode  of  force  is  the 
equivalent  of  so  much  of  another  mode.  It  has 
been  likened  to  a  mart  where  we  barter  or  ex- 
change one  kind  of  force  for  its  equivalent  in 
another.  It  is  rather  a  bank  from  which  we  do 
not  draw  the  identical  coin  we  deposit,  but  only 
its  equivalent  in  other  coin.  But  as  no  credit  is 
given,  we  must  first  deposit  before  we  can  draw  at 
all.  Every  force,  as  it  has  been  said,  is  preceded 
by  some  other  force.  The  law  of  compensation 
that  adjusts  the  exchange  in  this  correlation  gives 
one  force  after  another.  In  brief,  nature  keeps 
things  exactly  where  she  wants  them,  and  in 
pcifect  liarmony,  looking  and  moving  in  tlio  di- 
rection of  ultimate  ])orl'ectibility. 


WHY   IS   CORRELATION.  65 

Correlative  movements  in  matter  are  necessi- 
tated by  three  universal  and  omnipotent  principles 
in  nature:  First — All  physicists,  from  Aristotle 
down,  say,  that  nature  abhors  a  vacuum.  Every- 
where must  be  something,  solid  or  fluid,  and  but 
one.  A  moral  vacuum  is  as  impossible  as  any 
other.  If  man  has  not  virtues  he  will  have  vices. 
Second — Though  there  can  be  no  vacuum,  and 
nature  fills  every  place  with  something,  she  only 
puts  one  thing  in  any  one  place  at  the  same  time. 
In  things  that  run  in  successive  pairs,  such  as  day 
and  night,  virtue  and  vice,  you  will  have  exactly 
as  much  of  one  as  you  do  not  have  of  the  other. 
Just  as  morality  goes  immorality  comes.  They 
are  not  companions.  Two  kings  cannot  sit  on  the 
same  part  of  the  throne  at  the  same  moment. 
Nature  never  attempts  the  impossible.  The  laws 
of  impenetrability  forbid  space  to  have  too  much 
of  anything.  The  driven  wedge  or  nail,  or  the 
stone  in  the  water,  each  displaces  its  own  bulk, 
and  no  more.  Shadows  increase  with  the  depart- 
ing sun.  The  roots  of  the  tree  displace  their  own 
bulk  of  earth  in  Avhicli  they  are  fastened.  Two 
opposite  trains  cannot  pass  each  other  on  the 
same  track. 

In  addition  to  this  abhorrence  of  a  vacuum  and 


66  THE    UNITY    OF    LAW. 

tliis  law  of  impenetrability  of  matter,  there  is, 
ildrdly,  the  fact  of  universal  unrest.  Nothing  is 
stationary.  Plato  says  that  even  all  unity  tends 
to  plurality,  and  all  plurality  ends  in  unity. 
Forces  are  ever  in  unstable  equilibrium,  aud  char- 
acter is  ever  oscillating  to  an  average.  As,  if  you 
mix  a  pint  of  the  seed  of  tares  with  a  bushel  of 
Avheat,  you  will  average  upward  in  value,  so  you 
will  average  downward  if  you  mix  a  bushel  of 
tares  with  a  pint  of  Avheat.  The  moral  average  of 
character  and  conduct  will  depend  on  the  propor- 
tion of  its  virtues  to  its  vices.  In  colors,  you  will 
have  a  shade  or  a  tint,  as  the  light  or  the  dark 
predominates  in  the  hue. 

(h)  la  moral  force  there  is  also  an  inverse  corre- 
lation. Systems  do  not  conflict,  but  agree.  As  in 
matter,  force  is  any  power  that  does  work,  such  as 
gravitation,  heat,  and  electricity;  so,  sacred  or 
moral  force  is  any  ])ower  or  influence  that  affects 
conduct  or  shapes  civilization,  such  as  love,  adora- 
tion, and  awe  in  worship,  the  sacredness  of  domes- 
tic relations,  and  the  highest  mental  and  moral 
education  of  man.  Secular  force  includes  the 
seeking  of  power  for  the  sake  of  power,  the  love  of 
money,  war  for  personal  or  territorial  aggrandize- 
ment, and  tlu!  separation  of  the  state  from  religion. 


MOllAL   COllRELATIONS.  07 

Tilings  tliat  have  tbeir  opposite,  not  in  ci^se,  but 
ill  posse,  such  as  morality  and  imraoralit}^,  aiid  that 
do  not  co-exist  at  the  same  moment  in  the  same 
subject,  can  be  correlated  into  that  opposite:  as 
heat  into  electricity,  or  virtue  into  vice,  and  the 
reverse.  If  things  will  change,  it  is  important  to 
know  the  law  of  that  change  as  it  affects  conduct 
and  society. 

Looking  at  the  past  through  the  perspective  of 
history,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  increment  of  sec- 
ular forces  is  exactly  equivalent  to  the  shrinkage 
in  the  sacred  forces,  and  the  reverse;  and  that  the 
correlation  of  sacred  and  secular  forces  is  as  rig- 
idly dem.onstrable  and  measurable  as  that  of  any 
and  all  other  forces.  This  correlation  is  seen  in 
the  fact  that  the  maximum  of  sacred  forces  coin- 
cides with  the  minimum  of  the  secular,  and  the 
maximum  of  the  secular  force  is  the  minimum 
of  the  sacred.  In  other  Avords,  a  given  quantity 
of  one  has  been  displaced  and  an  exact  equivalent 
of  the  other  has  been  substituted — the  one  coming 
as  the  other  goes.  High  civilization  is  in  the  sup- 
pression of  disorganizing  force,  and  the  substitu- 
tion of  its  equivalent  in  one  of  liarmon}-;  a  result 
ever  coming  and  ever  to  come.  The  tendency  in 
the  ebb  and  flow  of  events  is  from  extreme  sacred- 


68  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

iiess  to  extreme  secnlarity,  and  the  reverse.  Take 
the  case  of  one  addicted  to  vice,  say  to  drunken- 
ness, and  the  power  of  vice  will  strengthen  exactly 
as  the  power  of  the  will  weakens.  Discipline  is 
correlated  into  indulgence.  Lawlessness  increases 
as  restraints  are  removed.  Immorality  increases 
as  spiritual  or  religious  power  decreases. 

Do  we  not  in  this  transmutation  or  manifestation 
of  physical  force — the  increment  of  the  one  corres- 
ponding to  the  decrement  of  another,  or  the  incre- 
ment of  one  corresponding  to  the  increment  of 
another,  and  the  reverse — grasp  a  principle  Avhicli 
imderlies  the  action  and  reaction  of  all  changes, 
whether  physical,  moral,  or  political  ?  Fraud,  def- 
amation, falsehood,  impurity,  malicious  violence, 
and  theft,  have  their  place  in  the  universal  chain  of 
cause  and  effect,  of  integration  and  disintegration, 
of  propagation  and  growth,  of  evolution  and  devo- 
lution, of  conservation  and  correlation.  Can  the 
perpetrator  of  wrong  escape  all  consequences  of 
his  act?  Is  wrong  the  only  thing  in  all  the 
universe  released  from  responsibility,  or  that 
does  not  propagate  itself,  or  from  which  the  doer 
instantly  disconnects  himself,  and  leaves  his  wrong 
to  its  solitary  effects?  Can  a  man  separate  himself 
lioiii    his   shadow  ?     Let   no   one,    especially   the 


WRONG   IS   IMMORTAL.  69 

young,  deceive  liimself  us  to  the  inexorable  laws  of 
all  tliiugs.  The  character  of  actions  becomes  the 
character  of  the  actors.  The  bed  of  mineral  satu- 
rates the  stream  that  passes  over  it.  Wrong-doing 
poisons  all  subsequent  life.  Evils  change,  but 
never  die.  Philosophize  about  it  as  Ave  may,  Ave 
cannot  be  blind  to  the  universal  fact  that  somehow, 
in  the  end,  right  gets  even  Avith  each  Avrong.  As 
said  before,  the  hiAv  of  equivalence,  or  compensa- 
tion, is  the  most  terrible  of  certainties  to  all  Avho 
'do  wrong.  Deferred  payments  only  accumulate 
the  debt.  Money  loaned  must  come  back  Avith  in- 
terest. Time  becomes  an  awful  and  an  avenging 
factor.  It  neither  conceals  nor  forgets;  but  as 
seconds  added  to  seconds  make  up  the  ages,  so 
does  a  retribution  to  come  enlarge  and  intensify 
itself.  Wrong  is  immortal.  Moral  equilibriums 
are  inevitable.  Let  every  man  who  has  broken  a 
moral  law  know  that,  whether  asleep  or  awake,  in 
Avhatever  continent  or  zone  he  may  be,  the  re- 
morseless hxAv  of  correlation,  of  equivalence,  of 
compensation,  of  equilibration,  is  ever  in  pursuit, 
and  knoAvs  exactly  Avhere  and  when  to  find  him  for 
reparation  or  for  punishment.  The  police  of  the 
universe  is  ubiquitous,  its  justice  infallible,  and  its 
punishments  complete  and  resistless. 


70  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

The  diagram  on  next  page  is  intended  to  illus- 
trate the  change  of  the  basis  of  morality,  by  in- 
verse correlation,  from  Polytheism  to  the  State, 
on  the  one  side,  as  in  Rome,  and  to  Philosophy  on 
the  other  side,  as  in  Greece;  and  then,  by  the 
same  iuvei-se  correlation,  the  change,  everywhere, 
to  Monotheism,  from  the  State  and  from  Philos- 
ophy. Tlie  movement  to  Ccosar  is  from  the  divine 
to  the  human,  and  thence  from  the  human  to  the 
divine. 

The  next  four  lectures  will  discuss  the  inverse 
correlations,  illustrated  by  the  four  adjacent  angles 
of  the  following  diagram.  It  will  be  observed  that 
the  correlation  was  not  between  the  two  religions, 
Polytheism  and  Monotheism,  which  were  succes- 
sive, not  contemporary;  but  between  either  of 
these,  the  civil  basis  of  morality  on  the  one  side, 
and  the  speculative  one  of  philosophy  on  the 
other.  Speaking  of  this  conUict,  Bagehot  says: 
"Those  kinds  of  morals  and  that  kind  of  religion 
which  tend  to  make  the  foremost  and  most  ett'ect- 
ual  character  are  sure  to  prevail,  all  else  being  the 
same;  and  creeds  or  systems  that  conduce  to  a 
soft,  limp  mind  tend  to  perish,  except  some  hard 
extrinsic  force  keep  alive.  Thus  E[)icurianism 
never  iirospered  at  Home  (tliough  C;esar,  Lucre- 


CORRELATIONS   OF   CIVILIZATION. 


71 


Mn\iniiim  of  llcligion.  ~| 
Miixiiimmof  Moniliiy.  J- 
Wiuiiuumor  Stale  VowerJ 


The  Slate  riisrlaces  Polytheisi 
and  (liMiiiUus  c-ivil  aud  rcli' 
iutis  laws. 


The  basis  of  moralitv  and  law 
changes  fnim  the  will  nf  the 
guds  to  ihe  collective  will  of 
men,  ae  a  State. 


Minimum  of  Relision.  "1 
Xliixinium  of  Stale  Power.  )■ 
Maxiuium   of  Immorality.  J 


The  hnsis  of  morality  and  law 
ehan.!;cs  Iron,  the  will  of  the 
State  to  the  V\ill  of  the  one 
God. 


Europe  Christiauized. 


Out  <.r  17S  Ld.  ChancellorB,  123 
have  been  Bishops. 


Civil  and  Moral  law   uuiled. 


Minimum  of  Slate  Power") 

in  Moralitv.  i 

Ma.vinium  of  Religion.  | 

Ma\iniuni   of  Moralilv,        J 


Fig.  3. 

Ancestral  Wokship. 

Mytlu.louy. 


n^W.loB.VB.I 


fjlM>wjK'«»M^a»iiM»«»»ia«< 


Judaism. 
Christianity. 


fMaximum  of  Religion. 
'  Maximum  of  .Moralilv. 
LMiuimum  of  Philosoi'diy. 


2.  Impersonal   nature   bas 


(-Minimum  of  Reli;;ion. 
.;  Maxilnum  of  Philosophv. 
I^Maxinium  of  Inimoralitv. 


Monotheism    displaces    Philoso- 
phy. 


The  Schoolmen  change  Philoso- 
phy into  'f heology. 


Supernatural  hasis  for  Morality. 


C.Minininm  of  Philosophy 
j  such. 

>  Maximum  of  Kel'EioD. 
l_Maxllnuni  of  Molality. 


72  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

tins  and  Horace  were  Epicureans),  but  Stoicism 
did;  the  stiff,  serious  character  of  the  great  pre- 
vailing nation  was  attracted  by  what  seemed  a 
confirming  creed,  and  deterred  by  what  looked 
like  a  relaxing  creed.  The  inspiriting  doctrines 
fell  upon  the  ardent  character,  and  so  confirmed 
its  energy.  Strong  beliefs  win  strong  men,  and 
make  them  stronger.  Such  is,  no  doubt,  one 
cause  why  Monotheism  tends  to  prevail  over  Poly- 
theism; it  produces  a  higher,  steadier  character, 
calmed  and  concentrated  by  a  great  single  object; 
it  is  not  confused  by  competing  rites,  or  distracted 
by  miscelhmeous  deities.  Polytheism  is  religion 
i)i  commission,  and  it  is  weak  accordingly.  But  it 
will  be  said  the  Jews,  who  were  Monotheists,  were 
conquered  by  the  Bomans,  who  were  Polytheists. 
Yes,  it  must  be  answered;  because  the  Romans 
had  other  gifts;  they  had  a  capacity  for  politics, 
a  habit  of  discipline,  and  of  these  the  Jews  had 
not  the  least.  The  religious  advantage  was  an 
advantage,  but  it  was  counter-weighed."'^ 

{a)  Physics  aud  Politics,  7(57. 


LECTUKE  II.— Continued. 
THE  FIRST  CORRELATION. 

In  which  the  Religious  (Polytheistic)  Basis  op  Mobality  is  Dis- 
placed AND  THE  Political  (Roman)  Basis  of  the  State  is  Coeeela- 
TivELY  Substituted.    (See  Figure  4,  next  page.) 

I.  Thk  Ancient  Family. 

1.  The  Religious  Basis  of  Morality  in  the  Patrician's  Fam- 

ily to  be  Displaced. 

(a)  The  constitution  by  sacred  marriage. 

(b)  The  iDower  it  conferred. 

2.  The  Non-religious  Basis  of  Morality  in   the  Plebeian's 

Family  to  be  substituted. 

(a)  The  constitution  of  the  Plebeian's  family. 

(b)  The  power  it  conferred. 

II.  The  Ancient  State. 

1.  The  Status. 

(a)  The  status  based  on  religion  to  be  displaced. 

(b)  The  political  status  substituted, 

2.  As  to  Laws. 

(a)  The  religious  basis  to  be  displaced. 

(b)  The  political  basis  substituted. 

III.  The  Ancient  Coukts. 

1.  The  Prsetor  Urbanus. 

2.  The  Prsetor  Peregrinus. 

3.  The  Jurisconsults. 

"The  law  of  the  conservatioD  of  force,"  says  You- 
man,   "has  higher  bearings  than  is  seen  of  their 


74 


THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 


action  in  matter.  More  and  more  we  are  perceiv- 
ing that  the  condition  of  liumanity  and  the  pro- 
gress of  civilization  are  direct  resultants  of  the 
forces  by  which  men  are  controlled.  What  we 
term  the  moral  order  of  society  implies  a  strict 
regularity  of  these  forces.  Modern  statistics  dis- 
close a  remarkable  constancy  in  the  moral  activi- 
ties manifested  in  the  communities  of  men. 
Crimes,  and  even  the  modes  of  crime,'''  have  been 

Fig.   4. 

Ancestral  Worship. 

Mythology. 


Minimum  of  the 
State. 

Law,  the  will  nnd   reason 

or  the  Stale. 
ScuatuB  CoDRulta 

...B.  C.  7:iri-aM  A.  D. 
Legeb  Centuriuta 

u.  c.  SOU 

riebiacites  Tributa... 

Ud-'im 

Tweivo  Tables *tn 

Coniiuhium 44-1 

KdicI  of  Pra:tor  (Ur- 

banuB) IMk 

Btatits.     Plebeian!  as: 

Milliard  Tribune 4ir) 

Con»ul Iinii 

Uiclator 35H 

Ceimur ».M 

HrM'tnr .1.); 

Poiillirii  and  Augurs.,  mil 
Prjcior  PeregrluuK... .  217 
t^DlVfriial    Reason    as 

Law. 
JurlaconsulU 121-4.1 

MaXIMI'M    ok  TlIK 
ST.\I  K. 


Maximum  of 
Polytheism. 

Law  the  will    of  the  gods. 

The  Keligiou.s  Kauiil.v. 

Sacramental  Marriage. 

Patricians  were  Priests. 

The  Comitia  Curiata  a 
legislature  c   Priests. 

Polytlieisnt  gave  away 
gradually  as  a  basis 
of  morality,  and  civil 
power  correlatlvely 
took  Us  place. 

Iloneral  immornlitj-. 

Minimum    of 

I'oLYTHErSM, 


ClCSAU. 


in)   Sei;  (i>ll('.tcU:t, 


SOCIAL  FORCES  CORRELATED.  75 

observed  to  occur  with  a  uuiformity  wliicli  admits 
of  their  prediction.  Each  period,  therefore,  may 
be  said  to  have  its  definite  amount  of  morality  and 
justice.  It  has  been  maintained,  for  instance,  with 
good  reason,  that  '  the  degree  of  liberty  a  people 
is  capable  of,  in  any  given  age,  is  a  fixed  quantity; 
and  that  any  artificial  extension  of  it  in  one  direc- 
tion brings  about  an  equivalent  limitation  in  some 
other  direction.  French  revolutions  show  scarcely 
any  more  respect  for  individual  rights  than  the 
despotism  they  supplant;  and  French  electors  use 
their  freedom  to  put  themselves  again  in  slavery. 
So  in  those  communities  where  State  restraint  is 
feeble  we  may  expect  to  find  it  supplemented  by 
the  sterner  restraints  of  public  opinion.'"'^ 

Some  forces  are  correlative,  and  some  are  not. 
Gravitation,  for  instance,  is  not  correlative  with 
any  other  force.  There  is  no  correlation  of  thought 
between  parent  and  servant,  as  there  is  between 
parent  and  child.  Therefore,  before  we  can  sub- 
ject any  two  social  forces  to  the  test  of  the  law  of 
correlation,  we  must  be  sure  that  they  are  cor- 
relative. Now,  we  are  sure  that  work  and  energy, 
work  and  wages,  heat  and  electricity,  virtue  and 

(a)  Introductiou  to  Yoiiniaii's  edition  of  Grove  on  Correlatiou 
and  Conservation  of  Force,  xxxvii. 


76  THE  UNITY  OF  LAW. 

vice,  are  correlative.  One  will  be  affected  directly 
or  inversely  as  the  other  is  affected.  So,  too, 
there  is  an  inverse  correlation  between  the  influ- 
ence of  a  human  and  of  a  superhuman  centre  of 
morality — one  prevailing  as  the  other  declines;  and 
there  is  a  direct  correlation  between  a  supposed 
human  moral  centre  and  vice,  and  a  superhuman 
moral  centre  and  virtue,  the  one  increasing  as  the 
other  increases.  When  we  see  society  steadily  de- 
cline in  morality,  for  hundreds  of  years,  we  must 
admit  the  continued  operation  of  some  law  con- 
trolling that  decline.  When  we  see  men  consult 
the  Praetor  in  the  forum,  rather  than  the  Priest  in 
the  temple,  or  take  from  within,  and  not  from 
above  themselves,  the  rule  and  reason  of  conduct, 
and  see  morality  steadily  decline  under  such  a 
choice,  the  operation  of  the  inexorable  law  of  cor- 
relation, or  of  displacement  of  a  conservative 
force,  and  the  substitution  of  one  destructive  is 
evident. 

The  long  history  of  Eome  sjiows  us,  better  than 
we  can  otherwise  see,  the  irresistible  working  of 
this  tremendous  law.  Taking  our  stand  at  C;esar, 
and  looking  back  through  seven  centuries  of  politi- 
cal phenomena,  the  law  will  be  seen  to  be  proved. 
After  ull  her  struggles  of  Kings  with  Patricians,  of 


SOCIAL  FORCES  CORRELATED.  77 

Consuls  with  Tribunes;  after  her  wise  Praetors  and 
her  imperishable  laws,  she  sinks  into  loathsome 
immoralities,  and  holds  out  her  hands  for  the  man- 
acles of  her  master.  "Why  was  this  ?  The  forces, 
like  ballast  in  the  foundering  shij),  had  fatally 
shifted  from  the  side  of  theistic  responsibility,  and 
consequently  of  public  purity  and  right,  to  the  side 
of  mere  human  responsibility,  and  consequently 
of  impurity  and  public  wrong.  The  correlation 
was  entire.  The  conservative  force  of  its  ancient 
religion,  superstitious  though  it  was,  had  de- 
creased and  faded  out,  and  a  thoroughly  immoral 
and  destructive  force  had  just  that  much  in- 
creased. The  quid  'pro  quo  had  been  fully  paid. 
One  force  had  gone,  and  another,  and  immorality, 
had  come.  What  is  the  explanation  ?  Had  polit- 
ical power  decreased?  On  the  contrary,  it  had 
grown  to  full  jurisdiction,  not  only  over  Kome,  but 
also  over  the  world.  Was  it  because  of  more 
moral  darkness?  Though  philosophy,  either  moral 
or  intellectual,  was  not  known  at  Rome  until  140 
years  B.  C,  yet  the  civil  law,  as  it  came  from  the 
Catos,  the  Scaevolas,  and  Sulpitius,  of  centuries, 
was  a  severe  statement  of  political,  moral  duty. 
The  secret  of  failure  of  Koman  civilization  was  in 
this:  Whatever  advances  moral  thought  had  made, 


78  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

as  seen  in  tbe  adjudications  of  the  courts,  or  in 
the  culture  of  the  philosophers,  it  did  not  prove 
to  be  moral  power.  Thought  did  not  extirpate, 
but  only  refined  the  vices  of  passion.  The  masses 
of  the  people  can  not  be  philosophers,  but  they 
may  be  worshippers.  Their  ideas  must  be  very 
general,  and  acquired  in  a  practical  way.  All 
classes,  learned  and  unlearned,  with  their  animal 
passions  ever  active,  need  to  feel  responsible  to, 
and  to  be  assisted  by,  some  supernal  authority  that 
governs  Avith  all  power  and  without  any  passion. 

But,  however  uncertain  and  indefinite,  at  this 
time,  popular  ideas  of  morality  and  law  might  have 
been,  they  were  much  more  indefinite  when,  in- 
stead of  the  uncertainties  of  the  Prastor-law,  they 
depended  upon  tiie  uncertainties  of  the  Imperial 
will.  Despotism  regards  law  as  a  thing  of  arbi- 
trary and  human  limitation;  moral  reason  claims 
that  it  is  essential  rightuess;  religion  urges  as  law 
the  command  of  Omniscience. 

The  people  absorb  their  moral  ideas  mostly  from 
religion;  the  lawyers  claim  to  reach  theirs  by  logic. 
As  an  exclusive  rule,  which  is  the  safer?  Has 
oitlier,  by  itself,  been  sufficient  for  the  best  move- 
mtniis  of  civilizations?  History  and  philosophy 
reveal    law.      Plato,    in  Greece,  and  Cicero,  three 


EVILS   EVOLVE   LAWS.  79 

hundred  years  after,  in  Kome,  wrote  theories  of 
law — the  hiw  of  the  philosophers — not  the  law  of 
the  lawyers;  but  law  is  the  moral  side  of  a  fact,  or 
the  concreting  of  a  principle  upon  a  fact — not  an 
abstract  notion  of  what  ought  to  be.  Ex  facto  jus 
oritur.  It  is  no  bodyless  soul;  and  as  we  know  the 
soul  only  in  connection  with  the  body,  so  do  we 
know  law  only  in  connection  with  facts.  Tlie  law 
never  anticipates  history.  As  there  is  no  law  with- 
out a  case,  so  there  is  no  case  without  a  law.  It 
comes  with  the  occasion  Avhich  needs  it;  and,  as 
matter,  action,  and  reaction  are  equal  and  op- 
posite, so  good  laws  have  their  occasion  in  the 
vices,  and  their  wisdom  in  the  virtues,  of  society. 
Laws  are  to  restrain  the  bad,  as  well  as  to  protect 
the  good,  and  hence  law  must  increase  as  evils  in- 
crease.^ Events  are  before  the  law — the  law  never 
before  the  event — at  most,  events  and  law  co-exist. 
Though  law  is  only  adjudicated  morality,  yet  the 
character  of  these  adjudications  Avill  be  evolved 
from  the  judge's  previous  studies  of  abstract  mo- 
rality. Coleridge  "recommends  an  advocate  to 
devote  a  part  of  his  leisure  time  to  some  study  of 

((()  Bon<M  leges  malls  ex.  moribus procreantur:  Good  laws  grow  out 
of  evil  acts.  And  it  is  even  possible  for  bad  men  in  office,  and 
before  the  eyes  of  good  men,  to  declare  good  laws  to  I'estrain  the 
conduct  of  other  bad  men  not  in  otiicc. 


80  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

metaphysics  of  the  mind  or  metaphysics  of  theol- 
ogy— something  which  shall  call  forth  all  his  pow- 
ers, and  centre  his  wishes  in  the  investigation  of 
truth  alone,  without  reference  to  a  side  to  be  sup- 
ported. No  studies  give  such  a  power  of  distin- 
guishing as  the  metaphysical,  and,  in  their  natural 
and  unperverted  tendency,  they  are  ennobling  and 
exalting.  Some  such  studies  are  wanted  to  coun- 
teract the  operation  of  legal  studies  and  practice, 
which  sharpen,  indeed,  but,  like  a  grinding  stone, 
narrow  while  they  sharpen."  He  is  the  wisest 
lawyer  who  is  the  most  enlightened  moralist. 
Mr.  Richard  Harrison,  following  the  teaching  of 
Austin,  has  recently  contended  that  the  law  of  the 
lawyer  has  nothing  to  do  with  morality.  It  is  true 
that  law  is  obeyed,  as  law,  because  it  is  commanded 
by  the  supreme  authority,  but  the  ever-occurring 
question  presents  itself,  what  is  the  moral  ground 
of  the  command  they  prescribe  as  law  ?  We  know 
that  wrong  law  is  no  law.  Law  is  only  the  formula 
of  a  principle,  and  to  know  the  formula  you  must 
know  the  principle  underlying  it.  A  right  rule 
implies  a  right  principle,  and  no  doctrine  of  slave 
decisis  forbids  the  questioning  of  an  adjudication 
wliich  violates  principle,  moral  or  conventional. 
Jjaw  is  not  in    the  words,  but  in  their  meaning. 


LAW  IS  IN  ITS  REASONS.  81 

Qui  hceret  in  literd,  hceret  in  cortice.  And  no  axiom 
in  law  is  more  generally  recognized  than  that,  when 
the  reason  of  a  law  ceases,  the  law  itself  ceases — 
cessante  ratione,  cessat  lex.  He  understands  the 
rule  of  law  best  who  best  understands  its  princi- 
ple. The  civilians  held  that  the  law  was  in  its 
reason.  This  reason,  in  early  law,  came  from  the 
priests;  in  later  law  its  form  came  from  the  logi- 
cians. 

Law  literature  did  not  begin  until  the  close  of 
the  Rej)ublic.  Up  to  that  time  the  moral  ideas 
before  held  in  solution  by  the  ancient  religions 
correlated  mainly,  at  first,  into  the  law  of  status  and 
the  heroism  of  character.  "In  the  absolute 
authority  accorded  by  religion  to  the  father  over 
the  children,  by  the  ancestral  worship,"  says 
Lecky,  "to  the  husband  over  the  wife,  to  the 
master  over  the  slave,  we  may  trace  the  same 
habits  of  discipline  that  proved  so  formidable  in 
the  field."  The  religious  unity  of  the  ancient  fam- 
ily led  to  the  civil  unity  of  the  ancient  State. 
Ideas  fall  from  one  form  into  another.  Correla- 
tion is  incessant  and  universal.  There  is  change, 
not  creation.  With  the  coming  of  the  merchant 
came  the  hx  mercatoria,  but  not  before.  In  the  in- 
stability of  political  forces,  Eepublican  Rome  gave 


82  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

all  ber  strength,  not  to  law,  but  to  conquest.  Re- 
membering tliat,  out  of  five  hundred  years  of  her 
life  as  a  Republic,  Rome  devoted  two  hundred  and 
seventy-five  to  war,  we  can  understand  Cicero's 
axiom:  Inter  arma  silent  leges.  Honors  Avere  for 
heroes,  not  lawyers,  says  Lecky. 

Force  moving  from  a  centre  explains  the  growth 
of  Rome.  From  her  radiated  life,  unity,  and  power 
to  the  utmost  bounds  of  known  people.  The  Sam- 
nites,  for  instance,  and  other  nations  or  tribes 
which  she  conquered,  were  disunited,  and,  like  a 
pile  of  sand,  had  no  integration,  cohesion,  or  mu- 
tual support.  Rome,  strong  in  her  unity,  was 
homogeneous  in  her  energies,  coherent,  directed 
by  one  will  upon  one  object  at  a  time,  making  the 
most  of  everything  to  gain  her  end;  but  the  Sam- 
nites,  with  no  mutual  help  from  each  other,  were 
weak  through  their  diversities,  and  were  conquered 
even  with  greater  power  in  their  hands.  All 
through  nature,  many  weak  things  unitcul  prevail 
over  many  strong  things  disunited.  The  life  of 
the  weak  is  ever  passing  into  the  life  of  the 
strong.  Those  who  have  much  can  gain  more, 
and  those  wlio  have  little  can  hold  nothing- 
Strength  absorbs  strenglh.  The  sparrow  must 
beware  of  the  hawk,  and  the  hawk  of  the  eagle. 


CORRELATION   OF   CUSTOMS.  83 

The  laws  of  a  people  are  so  completely  tlie  ex- 
pression and  result  of  its  civilization  that,  to  be 
studied  with  success,  they  must  be  studied  histori- 
cally."^ If  we  study  the  history  of  ancient  civiliza- 
ation  by  the  character  of  its  movements,  we  find 
them  to  be  religious,  political,  or  legal;  if  by  in- 
stitutions, there  are  the  family,  the  state,  or  the 
judiciary;  if  by  officers,  they  are  the  father,  the 
executive,  or  the  Praetor.  Whether  we  consider 
one  or  the  other  of  these,  we  shall  find  the  basis  of 
morality  correlating  from  the  religious  to  the  non- 
religious  side  of  said  social  forces. 

The  inverse  correlation  of  one  domestic  religious 
custom  of  a  people  into  another  custom,  not  relig- 
ious, may  be  seen  by  a  glance  at  the  parallel 
tables  on  the  next  page,  viz. : 

(a)  Cumiuiii's  Intro,  to  Justinian. 


84 


THE  UNITY   OF  LAW. 


Plebeian's  Secular  Fajuly. 

1.  Poll/theism,  with  the  Plebe- 
ian, was  a  belief  in  the  mytho- 
logical gods  of  the  elements  of 
nature.    Its  idea  was  ]}rovid<'.nce. 

2.  Secular  marriages  in  the 
Temple  of  Jnno,  in  imitation  of 
the  Fatrician' sco»fa7Teatio.  The 
usual  marriage  of  the  Plebeian 
with  the  Plebeian  was 

(a)  The  co-emptio,  or  the  pur- 
chase of  a  wife.     It  conferred 

i.  The  Manus,  or  power,  that 
a  master  had  over  a  slave  he 
had  purchased. 

ii.  The  Patria  Potestns  or 
absolute,  earthly,  despotic  power 
over  the  life  and  death  of  his 
family. 

(b)  The  Usus.  This  was  a 
contract  for  marital  companion- 
ship, at  the  pleasure  of  the  par- 
tics. 

(c)  This  secular  marriage  re- 
sulted in  great  immorality:  4 
Cililion.  fli.  44. 


Patrician's  Religious  Family. 

1,  Poll/theism,  with  the  Patri- 
cian, was  the  worship  of  his 
Penates,  or  ancestral  gods;  and 
its  idea  was  j^iety.  He,  too,  had 
a  mythology. 

2.  Sacred  raarrlarje  in  the 
strict  privacy  of  the  Patrician's 
house  (to  be  described  hereafter). 
His  only  marriage  was  by  con- 

farreatio.     It  conferred 

(a)  The  Manus,  or  the  au- 
thority of  a  god  over  his  wife  as 
over  his  creature. 

(6)  The  Patria  Potestas,  or 
same  authority  over  his  family. 

(c)  Aguation,  or  inheritance 
exclusively  through  the  males, 
as  the  divine  side  of  the  family. 

[d)  This  sacred  marriage  was 
distinguished  by  severe  moral- 
ity: 4  Cibbon,  ch.  44. 


RELIGIOUS  AND   SECULAK  FAMILIES.  85 

I.     THE  ANCIENT  FAMILY. 

We  shall  see  the  correlative  exchange  of  social 
forces  when  we  look  into 

1.     THE  DISPLACEMENT  OF  THE  RELIGIOUS  BASIS  OF  MOKALITY 
IN  THE  PATKICIAN  FAMILY. 

In  order  to  see  the  decrease  or  displacement  of 
the  religious  basis  of  morality,  and  the  correlative 
increase  or  substitution  of  a  political  basis,  we 
must  notice  the  polytheistic  religions  themselves, 
that  were  to  be  displaced,  in  order  to  see  the  sec- 
ular polity,  to  be  correlatively  substituted.  It 
must  be  kept  in  mind,  that  the  conflict  or  correla- 
tion of  rival  bases  of  conduct  was  not  between 
Polytheism  and  Monotheism,  but  between  a  relig- 
ious basis  in  polytheism  and  a  political  basis  in 
the  collective  will  of  the  state  in  Rome,  and  a 
speculative  basis  in  Greece. 

(a)  The  Patrician's  religious  family  constituted 
by  the  sacrament  of  confarreaiio.  To  understand 
this  we  must  sketch  the  religious  belief  out  of 
which  it  grew.  Thousands  of  years  ago  the  Mo- 
notheistic Hebrews  and  the  Polytheistic  Aryans, 
probably  one  race,  went  out  from  their  original  hive 
in  central  Asia.  The  Hebrew  race,  working  out  its 
civilization  under  the  worship  of  its  one  God,  made 


86  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

its  home  and  history  along  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
Mediterranean  Sea;  the  Aryan  race,  to  which  we 
belong — working  out  its  social  ideas  under  the 
worship  of  its  many  gods,  ancestral  and  mytholog- 
ical— dispersed  toward  its  home  in  the  west  and 
north.  From  two  of  these  religious,  ancestral  and 
Judaic,  have  issued  two  diverse  conditions,  ap- 
pearing under  the  influence  of  Monotheism,  at  the 
coming  of  Christ,  in  one  broad,  enlarging  sea  of 
modern  civilization.  For  the  present  discussion, 
the  grand  and  most  ancient  Hebrew  element,  which 
became  corrupted  and  weakened,  will  receive  con- 
sideration in  its  connection  with  Christianity,  as 
one  with  it. 

During  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  the 
kingdom,  the  shifting  of  power  was  from  the  many 
heads  of  families,  as  Priests  or  Patricians,  to  the 
hands  of  the  one  originally  sacerdotal  King.  When 
the  Kings  were  expelled,  and  the  Patricians  recov- 
ered their  authority,  the  shifting  of  power,  for  the 
first  two  hunt) red  years  of  the  republic,  was  from 
the  Priest-Patricians  to  the  priestless  and  worship- 
less  Plebeians.  It  was  a  struggle  of  classes  with  re- 
ligious traditions  on  the  one  side,  and  no  religious 
traditions  on  the  otlicr;  and  the  moral  basis  passed 
frou)  tiic  religious  to  the  uon-roligious  side. 


now   TO   GOVERN   PASSION.  87 

Although  love  of  power  and  of  money  are  strong, 
yet,  in  no  one  phase  of  early  society  do  the  laws 
of  moral  conduct  come  more  into  view  than  in  the 
regulations  of  the  domestic  relations.  The  rela- 
tion of  the  sexes  shows  most  sensitively  the  morals 
of  a  race.  Shall  it  be  managed  by  religion  or  by 
logic,  by  the  conclusions  of  mere  reason  or  the 
awful  sanction  of  religious  love,  awe,  and  adora- 
tion, or  all  these?  Will  lust  listen  to  reason,  or, 
in  strongest  moments,  even  to  religion?  In  what 
direction  can  we  look  for  its  master?  What  power 
can  so  impress  the  mind  as  to  hold  its  lawless  de- 
mauds  in  subjection  ?  The  governing  power  must 
be  one  that  prevents  its  inceptive  thought.  The 
mind,  once  inflamed,  is  uncontrollable.  Can  mere 
reason  take  command  of  the  mind,  either  to  an- 
ticipate or  to  regulate  and  moderate  this  animal 
despotism  over  mankind  ?  How  was  it  disciplined 
among  the  earlier  people,  and  how  under  the 
latter?  Was  there  not  a  steady  correlation  of 
purity  into  impurity,  all  the  way  down  ?  In  average 
human  beings,  says  Mills,  passion  predominates 
over  reason. 

Everything  that  can  be  accepted  as  history  re- 
specting the  founding  of  Rome  by  Romulus,  735 
B.  C,  shows  the  prominence  of  the  family  unit; 


88  THE  UNITY  OF   LAW. 

and  all  history  as  to  the  founding  of  the  Empire 
by  Caesar,  speaks  of  the  pre-eminence  of  the  State. 
The  State  entirely  absorbed  or  substituted  itself 
for  the  family.  As  the  purity  and  influence  of  the 
family  declined,  the  corruption  and  influence  of 
the  State  correlatively  increased.  The  transmuta- 
tion is  obvious  and  complete. 

It  was  the  belief  of  the  ancient  Aryan  race,  as 
admirably  shown  by  De  Coulauge  in  his  "Ancient 
City,"  that  the  father,  the  generator  of  a  family, 
was  its  creator,  or  its  god;  and  that,  when  he  died, 
his  soul  was  buried  with  his  body,  and  needed  for 
its  happiness  the  perpetual  sacrifices  of  bread  and 
wine  at  the  hands  of  his  descendants,  and  from 
no  hands  but  those  of  his  descendants.  Hence 
the  family  altar,  the  family  property,  and  the  in- 
alienability, in  those  early  days,  of  family  estates. 
When  a  girl  married,  her  father,  or  the  male  head 
of  the  family,  as  a  god,  gave  her  away  to  her  hus- 
band, as  to  a  god  of  some  other  family.  The  bride 
was  dressed  in  the  customary  white  of  the  Priest- 
ess; and  the  giving  away  the  bride,  from  which 
our  custom  has  descended,  was  the  giving  of  a 
priestess  by  one  set  of  gods,  to  serve  at  the  altars 
of  another  set  of  gods,  b}'  offering  broad  and  wine. 
As  none  but  members  of  a  family  could  partici- 


ANCIENT  MARRIAGE.  89 

pate  in  the  family  worship  to  dead  ancestors  (and 
which  was  conducted  in  the  strictest  privacy),  a 
man  had  to  adopt  his  wife  as  his  daughter,  in  or- 
der to  enable  her  to  be  present  at  his  family  wor- 
ship. Hence,  she  took  his  name.  Under  this 
fiction,  she  could  be  present  and  participate  in  the 
worship  of  her  husband's  gods,  or  ancestors;  but, 
as  she  could  not  have  two  sets  of  ancestors,  she 
could  no  more  worship  her  own.  No  one  could 
have  two  family  religions.  Indeed,  sometimes 
these  family  gods  became  involved  in  family  feuds, 
and  were  supposed  to  lead  the  battles  that  occa- 
sionally occurred.  It  was  in  allusion  to  this 
change  of  gods  and  people  that  Ruth  said  to 
Naomi:  "Entreat  me  not  from  following  after 
thee.  Thy  people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy 
god  my  god."  A  marriage  was  therefore  a  change 
of  church.  At  the  door  of  her  father's  house,  her 
husband  received  her,  and  led  her  to  the  tomb  of 
his  gods  at  his  own  home,  and  there  both  poured 
the  sacrificial  wine,  and  broke  the  sacrificial  bread, 
and  offered  them  to  the  dead  for  their  benediction. 
We  now  offer  them  to  living  friends.  This  was 
called  marriage  by  cov/arreatio,  or  the  eating  to- 
gether of  the  farina  cake  devoted  to  the  gods  of 


90  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW, 

the  husband's  family.     This  is  now  a  feast  at  the 
house  of  the  bride. 

(b)  Its  power  was:  (i.)  The  Marital  Authority,  or 
3Ianus:  that  is,  her  property,  life,  and  children 
were  his,  as  if  he  were  her  only  god.  As  a  god  in 
fact  he  could  not  have  more.  This  supposed 
divinity  of  the  father  must  be  kept  in  mind  in 
every  attempt  to  understand  the  domestic  relations 
and  civil  institutions  of  the  ancient  Aryans,  from 
whom  the  Greeks  and  Romans  descended,  (ii.)  The 
Paternal  Authority,  or  Patria  Potestas.  If  the 
father  of  a  family,  being  its  generator,  was  its 
god,  of  course  it  followed  along  naturally  enough 
that  he  might  rule  it  absolutely  as  a  god.  This 
tremendous  power  of  the  male  representative  of  a 
family — conferred,  at  first,  by  the  sacred  marriage 
alone,  and  which  is  so  unaccountable  to  modern 
thought — existed  in  the  conviction  that  the  father 
was  a  god.  No  other  creator  was  known.  Hence 
he  had  over  his  children  the  absolute  power,  vUce 
et  nccis,  of  life  and  death;  and  this  power  lingered 
in  the  law  for  centuries  after  the  ancestral  worship 
had  ceased. 


MYTHOLOGY   NO    MORALITY.  91 

2.  THE  NON-RELIGIOUS  BASIS  OF  MORALITY  IN  THE  PLEBEIAN'S 
FAMILY  TO  BE  SUBSTITUTED  FOR  THE  RELIGIOUS  ONE  DIS- 
PLACED. 

The  Patrician's  religion  gave  place  to  the  Ple- 
beian's politics.  So  far  as  the  latter  had  a  relig- 
ion, they  took  it  from  nature,  and  not  ancestors. 
This  ancestral  worship  led  to  the  establishment 
of  altars,  ceremonies,  and  social  distinctions.  But 
the  common  people,  who  were  not  land-owners, 
had  no  homes,  and  so  no  domestic  altars  and  no 
domestic  worship.  These,  for  the  want  of  other 
gods,  made  gods  for  themselves  out  of  the  elements 
of  nature,  and  worshipped  the  wind,  the  sun,  the 
water,  the  fire  and  air,  as  gods,  and  united  them 
into  a  sjnod  of  gods  on  Mount  Olympus.  This 
was  a  religion  of  mere  fancy;  and  having  no  hold 
npon  the  conscience  and  the  affections,  was  sim- 
ply a  ceremonial  religion  of  fear  and  of  public 
policy.  Morality  was  not  its  aim.  In  addition  to 
his  ancestral  worship,  the  Patrician  had,  Avith  the 
Plebeian,  his  mythological  god  also;  but  this  had 
no  important  influence  upon  civilization.  Both 
these  religions,  the  ancestral  worship  of  the  Patri- 
cians and  the  Olympian  mythology  of  the  Plebei- 
ans, were  in  full  credit  at  the  founding  of  Rome, 
753  B.C.  From  that  day  up  to  the  Empire  of 
Csesar,  ancestral  worship  gave  way  to  mythology, 


92  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

and  both  beliefs  gradually  declined.  Tliej  were 
between  the  upper  millstone  of  popular  skepti- 
cism and  the  nether  millstone  of  secular  force. 
The  Patricians  claimed  the  exclusive  right  to  gov- 
ern, because  they  had  the  lines  of  ancestral  gods; 
indeed,  were  gods  themselves  in  prospect;  at  which 
pretension  the  philosophers  in  Greece  laughed, 
and  the  common  people  in  Eome  gu ashed  their 
teeth. 

(a)  The  Constitution  of  the  Plebeiaiis  Family. 
We  have  said  that  it  is  in  the  domestic  relations 
of  the  early  races  that  we  must  look  for  the  basis 
of  their  moral  notions : 

(i.)  Corresponding  to  the  Patrician's  sacred  mar- 
riage by  confarrealio,  was  the  Plebeian's  marriage 
by  purchase  or  mere  contract — co-emptio.  In  all 
Plebeian  marriages,  the  coujngal  union  rested  only 
upon  the  mutual  consent  of  the  parties  (mutnus 
concensus),  and  on  the  affection  which  they  had 
promised  each  other  {affectio  maritalis).  No  for- 
mality, religious  or  civil,  Avas  required,  though  a 
ceremony  was  sometimes  performed  in  the  temple 
of  Juno,  in  imitation  of  the  sacred  one  of  the  Pa- 
tricians, before  their  family  altars.  The  Patri- 
cians did  not  regard  this  as  marriage  at  all;  as,  in 
their   eyes,    the   marital   and    paternal   authority 


WOMEN  SOLD   IN   MARRIAGE.  93 

flowed  only  from  their  religions  ceremouy  which 
initiated  the  wife  into  the  worship  of  the  husband. 
With  them,  marriage  had  only  religious  ends — 
that  is,  a  posterity  to  keep  alive  the  worship  of 
the  ancestors.  As  the  Patricians  were  the  oiily 
class  that  had  ancestors  and  a  religion,  so  they 
only  had  laws;  because  laws  were  the  supposed 
will  of  these  gods.  This  state  of  things  could  not 
last.  As  the  Plebeians  increased  in  numbers  and 
wealth,  the  private  law  of  the  Patricians  had  to  be 
more  and  more  extended  to  the  Plebeians.  As  to 
marriage,  though  the  Plebeians  might  many  by 
mutual  consent,  they  could  not  have  that  power 
over  their  families  that  the  Patricians  had  over 
theirs;  so  a  formality  was  devised  for  their  use 
exclusively,  which,  in  civil  aflairs,  had  the  same 
eflfect  as  the  sacred  marriage  of  the  Patricians. 
They  had  recourse,  as  in  case  of  the  will,  to  a 
fictitious  sale.  The  father's  power  to  sell  a  child, 
resulting  from  the  religious  idea  of  having  created 
it,  opened  the  door  to  this  irreligious  custom. 
After  their  marriage  by  mutual  consent,  which  was 
their  only  marringe,  the  husband  bought  his  wife, 
co-emptio,  and  so  obtained  the  vnoinis,  or  marital 
power — but  it  was  the  maims  of  a  vendee  of  a  slave, 
not  that  of  a  god  over  a  creature,  or  of  a  father 


94  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

over  a  child,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Patricians.  Co- 
emption, or  purchase,  was  no  part  of  the  marriage 
act,  but  entirely  subsequent  to  it,  to  confer  upon 
the  Plebeian  husband  a  marital  power  like  that 
which  the  Patrician  obtained  by  the  sacro. 

ii.  Z7sHS  corresponds  to  co-emption.  One  year's 
uninterrupted  marital  companionship  conferred 
'upon  the  Plebeian  the  maims,  or  marital  power, 
as  much  as  the  sacra  did  upon  the  Patrician,  or 
the  Plebeian's  other  mode  of  co-emptio.  The  Ple- 
beians obtained  the  comnihuim,  by  the  Canulean 
law,  445  B.  C.  Although  this  law  gave  the  Ple- 
beian the  right  to  intermarry  with  the  Patrician, 
it  could  not  confer  upon  him  the  sacra.  The 
iiumus  must  be  obtained,  as  before,  in  exclnsively 
Plebeian  marriages,  by  co-emjjfio,  or  the  usus. 
The  union  of  a  Patrician  and  Plebeian  was  a 
mixed  marriage,  disapproved  of,  in  the  earliest 
times,  by  the  pride  and  conscience  of  the  Pa- 
trician; but  it  was  a  practical  result  from  the 
continuous  displacement  of  sacred  and  the  sub- 
stitution of  secular  force.  The  legal  device  of 
the  iisus  was  the  natural  result  of  those  secular 
marriages  by  mere  mutual  consent,  and  origi- 
nated under  these  circumstances:  Tlie  Patrician 
marriage  by   the   sacra   was  a  relation    supposed 


DECAY   OF  DOMESTIC  MORALITY.  95 

to  be  constituted  by  the  gods,  and,  of  course,  in- 
dissoluble; but  a  marriage  by  mutual  consent  only 
was  made  by  the  parties,  and  might  as  easily  be 
unmade. 

(5)  Tlie  Consiitution  of  the  Plebeian's  Family 
Changed,  (i.)  The  Marital  Authority,  or  Bkums, 
was  purchased  by  the  husband,  in  co-empiio, 
or  he  acquired  it,  by  a  lapse  of  time,  in  the  fall 
nsus,  and  all  right  over  the  wife's  property.  This, 
which,  upon  separation,  he  retained.  So,  to 
prevent  his  acquisition  of  this  power,  the  wife, 
in  the  tisiis,  absented  herself  three  consecutive 
nights  from  her  husband's  home,  thereby  break- 
ing the  iisits ;  and  so,  in  case  of  separation, 
the  wife  retained  her  property  as  a  fernmc  sole. 
Purchase,  or  co-emptio,  made  the  husband's  rnaii- 
2is  complete  and  irrevocable,  as  that  of  a  master 
over  a  slave.  But  the  tisns,  with  the  three 
nightly  absences  of  'the  wife,  became  the  most 
common  mode  of  conjugal  union,  as  it  defeated 
the  husband's  ma)Uis,  that  otherwise  would  ob- 
tain, and  left  the  parties  free  to  continue  or  dis- 
continue the  union  at  their  pleasure;  each  retain- 
ing all  rights  over  their  own  persons  and  property, 
ii.  The  Paternal  Authority,  or  Patria  Po- 
testas.     When  this  condition  of  domestic  life  was 


96  THE  UNITY  OF   LAW. 

reached,  the  secular  and  the  sacred  forces  were 
completely  correlated  or  exchanged,  marriage  was 
a  capricious  and  transient  relation,  and  social 
morals  rapidly  declined.  It  is  said,  by  Seneca, 
that  even  before  the  time  of  Csesar,  women  told 
their  ages,  not  by  their  years,  but  by  the  number 
of  their  marriages.  Ahn  consulam  inimero,  sed  ma- 
ritorum  cmiios  suos  compntant.  The  paternal  au- 
thority was  entirely  gone.  Pliny  says  that  in  his 
day  the  Eoman  youth  thought  they  knew  every- 
thing. They  revered  no  one;  they  imitated  no 
one,  but  were  a  law  unto  themselves:  Slatim  sa- 
jyiniit  statim;  sciunt  omnia;  neminem  verodiir;  imi- 
taiitur  neminem;  atqid  sihi  exempla  sunt. 

In  this  movement  the  special  will  of  the  ances- 
tral gods,  as  interpreted  by  the  few  Patricians,  had 
yielded,  and  the  more  universal  will  of  the  Ple- 
beian masses  having  correlatively  gained,  the  cen- 
tre of  law  was  changed  from  the  supposed  super- 
human Avill  to  the  real  human  will;  and  the  includ- 
ing circle  was  enlarged  to  the  more  general  rights 
of  man.  So  far,  the  change  from  the  religious 
to  the  non-religious  constitution  of  domestic  rela- 
tions did  not  improve  morality. 


RELIGIOUS   STATUS.  97 

II.     THE  ANCIENT  STATE. 

As  the  era  of  the  Eomfin  Eepublic  was  not  one 
of  speculative  philosophy,  but  of  persistent  strug- 
gle of  class  with  class,  its  moral  ideas,  as  crystallized 
into  law,  pertained  to  man  as  a  citizen,  and  not  to 
man  as  a  worshipper.  The  man  was  lost  in  the 
family,  and  the  family  in  the  state. 

1.     AS  TO  STATUS. 

(a)  The  status  hosed  on  religion  was  to  he  dis- 
placed. Status  was  the  first  to  feel  the  correlative 
movements  of  early  society.  The  Patrician  was 
forced  down  from  the  pedestal  where  ignorance 
had  placed  him  as  a  god  giving  all  law,  and  the 
Plebeian,  from  having  no  recognized  rights,  rose 
to  the  dignity  of  a  free  and  equal  citizen,  possess- 
ing all  rights.  He  extorted  the  laws  of  the  Twelve 
Tables  from  the  Patricians.  He  made  himself 
Tribune,  Consul,  Censor,  Praetor,  and  Pontiff.  He 
was  recognized,  as  he  should  have  been,  as  a  man 
with  the  rights  of  a  man. 

We  see  that,  both  in  Greece  and  Eome,  the  polit- 
ical instinct  of  all  classes,  and  especially  of  the 
Plebeian,  early  became  predominant,  and  gradually 
overrode  all  Patrician  views  of  family  religion. 
When   the    straggling    elements   of    society,    the 


98  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

strangers,  freedmeu,  and  illegitimates,  multiplied 
ill  numbers  and  became  wealthy,  and  united  into 
a  class  and  were  a  society  of  tlieir  own,  tliey  be- 
came confident  of  tlieir  power,  and  demanded  sucli 
democratic  changes  in  the  Patrician  religion  and 
class-laws  and  law-procedares  as  would  admit 
them  to  a  social  equality  with  the  first  families,  and 
a  fnll  political  equality  in  the  administration  of 
public  aftuirs.  The  success  of  this  demand,  begun 
in  the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  changed  all  sub- 
sequent society.  The  influence  of  sacredfaith  al- 
most, if  not  entirely,  disappeared,  and  civilization 
became  what  secular  force  sought  to  make  it.  Dur- 
ing the  entire  period  of  the  Koman  Republic,  the 
popular  instinct  of  right  and  equality  was  seeking 
to  place  civilization  upon  the  eternal  basis  of 
essential  right,  of  reason,  and  of  human  equality. 

(h)  The  political  status  that  displaced  a)td  siihslitiited 
the  religions. 

Religious  Status.  Political  Status. 

Laws  had   been  originally  ad-  Laws  came  to  be  administered 
ministered   exclusively    by  ))y  the  people  or  their  rep- 

the  Patricians  as  descend-  i-esentatives.    I'lebeians  ex- 

ants  of  the  ancestral  gods,  torted  from  the  Patricians 

viz:  as  the  right  to  hold  the  office  of 

1.  Priests.  1.  Military  Trilmne,  B.C.  445. 

2.  Kings.  2.  Consul,  B.C.  30(5. 
.'i.   Patricians.  3.  Dictator,  B.C.  356. 

4.  Censor,  B.C.  351. 

5.  Pra-tor,  B.C.  337. 

(i.    I'uiitill'.s  and  Augurs, P.. C.nOO. 


POLITICAL   MORALITY   INSUFFICIENT.  99 

TJie  cliaracteristic  of  the  family  is  purity;  that 
of  the  State  is,  at  most,  order.  The  family  is  dis- 
ciplined. The  State  is  governed.  The  oversight 
of  the  family  is  personal,  individual,  early,  pri- 
vate, and  immediate.  The  supervision  of  the 
State  is  political,  incomplete,  remote.  The  one 
has  to  do  with  the  formation  of  habits,  the  other 
with  habits  that  are  formed.  The  State  demands 
obedience  for  itself,  but  demands  morality  for  the 
citizen  as  citizen,  and  not  for  the  man  as  man. 
But  if  morality  has  only  public  ends,  then  a  man 
need  have  only  so  much  of  it  as  the  public  re- 
quires. Morality  for  the  sake  of  morality  will  not 
be  the  aim.  If  there  be  no  such  thing  as  right 
and  wrong,  except  as  prescribed  by  the  rule  of  a 
temporary  public  expediency,  then  morality  is  an 
arbitrary  or  conventional  matter.  But  the  law  of 
correlation  moves  to  its  end  in  spite  of  public 
opinion.  If  man  works  with  this  universal  law,  it 
is  all  right;  but  if  he  works  against  it,  he  must 
take  the  consequences.  There  is  no  punishment 
for  the  right-doer,  and  there  is  no  escape  for  the 
wrong-doer.  Correlation  is  everywhere  vigilant 
and  effective—  in  each  man,  and  in  all  the  world, 
putting  right  where  man  puts  wrong.  Man  is 
ever  transferring  or  correlating  power  from  one  to 


100  THE  UNITY   OF  LAW. 

the  otlier  side  of  himself,  making  himself  gen- 
erally better  or  generally  worse.  All  growth  is 
correlation:  one  thing  increasing  in  one  direction 
as  something  else  is  decreasing  in  some  other. 

"Alexander  Severus  trusted  the  wisest  of  his 
counsellors,  the  great  legalists  of  the  Empire,  with 
the  introduction  of  new  laws  to  curb  the  wicked- 
ness of  the  time.  But  the  multiplicity  of  laws 
proves  the  decline  of  States."^  This  is  especially 
evident  in  laws  referring  to  morality  or  social  cus- 
toms. The  maximum  of  law  is  the  maximum  of 
the  accumulated  moral  rules  of  the  official  few,  as 
against  the  immoral  practices  of  the  unofficial 
many.  Good  laws  are  declarations  of  abstract 
rights,  which  even  immoral  societies  are  not  un- 
willing to  announce.''     The  moment  that  the  phi- 

('f)  White's  Hist.  Eighteen  Centuries,  6. 

(//)  "  Tlic  common  order  of  science  proceeds  from  the  details  to 
the  whole.  The  method  of  Sociology  should  ^jrocecd  from  the 
whole  to  the  details.  There  is  no  universal  rule  for  the  order  of 
study,  but  that  of  proceeding  from  the  known  to  tlie  unknown; 
finding  our  way  to  the  facts  at  whatever  point  is  most  open  to 
our  observation.  In  the  ijhenomcna  of  the  social  state,  the  col- 
lective phenomena  is  more  accessible  to  us  than  the  parts  of 
which  it  is  composed.  Tlie  state  of  every  part  of  the  social 
whole,  at  any  time,  is  intimately  connected  with  the  contem- 
poraneous state  of  all  others.  Eeligious  belief,  philosophy, 
science,  the  flue  arts,  the  industrial  arts,  commerce,  navigation, 
government,  all  arc  in  close  mutual  dependence  on  one  another 


RELIGION   AND   MORALITY   DECLINE.  101 

losophers  in  Greece  and  the  Plebeians  in  Rome 
denied  the  power  of  dead  ancestors,  however  ex- 
alted in  immortality,  to  rule  on  earth,  the  entire 
centre  of  ancestral  religion  and  law  dropped  out, 
and  the  moral  basis  of  society  was  placed  in  the 
wisdom  of  living  men. 

We  are  now  to  trace  the  decline  of  the  one  and 
the  correlative  increase  of  the  other  of  these  ideas. 
This  was  its  movement  for  the  five  hundred  years 
of  the  Roman  Republic.  People  in  society  must 
be  governed  in  some  way.  Religion  decreases  in- 
versely as  immorality  increases.  As  immorality 
increases,  repressive  civil  laws  must  correlatively 
increase,  or  anarchy  ensue.  When  men  deuy  re- 
sponsibility to  superhuman  authority,  society,  in 
its  necessities,  must  compel  obedience  to  one  hu- 
man. 

"  Quid  leges,  sine  moribus,  vance  'proficiant.'''' 
What  can   idle   laws   do,    says   Horace,    without 

iusomiioli  that  when  any  considerable  change  takes  place  in  one, 
we  may  know  that  a  parallel  change  in  all  others  has  preceded  or 
will  follow  it.  The  progress  of  society  from  one  general  state  to 
another  is  not  an  aggregate  of  partial  changes,  but  the  product 
of  a  .single  in^mlne,  acting  through  ail  partial  agencies,  and  can 
therefore  be  most  easily  traced  by  studying  them  together." 
MiWs  Comti;  81.  "The  character  of  society  is  princixjally  deter- 
mined by  the  degree  in  which  the  better  incentive,  in  each  of 
these  cases,  makes  head  against  the  worse."  Id.  84.  As  to  the 
family  life,  marriage  and  divorce,  see  Id.  84,  85,  and  86. 


102  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

morals  ?  If  the  convictions  of  the  moral  responsi- 
bilities of  a  people  are  completely  relaxed,  or  are 
only  abstract  moralit}-,  little  can  be  expected  from 
the  penalties  or  restraints  imposed  by  the  wisest 
legislation,  supposing  such  legislation  to  arise. 

No  forces  move  from  centres  more  opposed  than 
the  religious  and  the  immoral,  and  the  moral  and 
the  non-religious.  The  decrease  of  the  one  is  in- 
versely as  the  increase  of  the  other.  When  heat 
is  correlated  into  electricity,  we  know  what  the 
force  is  which  is  to  be  re-made,  or  changed  into 
another.  The  line  of  correlation  is  distinctly  un- 
der our  attention,  and  can  be  traced;  so  it  is  as  to 
the  changes  in  social  and  political  events. 

2.    AS  TO  LAWS. 

(a)  The  rcUgious  basis  of  morality  to  be  displaced 
from  its  laws.  Morality  and  law  were  first  declared 
by  the  Patrician  or  religious  families,  then  by  the 
gens  or  clan  of  religious  families  represented  by 
an  assembly  of  the  heads  of  these  families,  culled 
the  Comilia  Ciiriata.  Here,  as  before,  the  correla- 
tion was  inversely  from  religious  customs  to  non- 
religious  institutions.  No  inverse  correlation 
was  ever  more  obvious.  As  the  authority  of 
tlic    Comilia    Curiaiu,    or    Synod    of    the  Sacred 


POLITICAL   LEGISLATION.  103 

Fathers  declined,  that  of  tlie  Comitla  Centuriata 
or  mass-meeting  of  tlie  arms-bearing  people  cor- 
relatively  increased.  Morality  and  law,  among 
the  earliest  Aryans,  was,  as  repeatedly  said,  the 
supposed  will  of  ancestral  gods,  the  Peuates  and 
Lares.  They  were  announced  by  the  liviog  male 
representative  of  the  farail}',  at  family  sacrifices  at 
family  altars.  They  were  embodied  in  family 
hymns  and  prayers,  and  also  by  the  decrees  of  the 
Comilia  Curiafa,  or  synod  of  the  fathers  as  priests. 
(&)  IJie  non-reli(ji(ms  basis  of  morality  to  be  cor- 
relatively  substituted  in  the  law.  As  the  Plebeians 
increased  in  number  and  power,  law  ceased  to  be 
a  family  matter  of  the  family  gods — but  grew  out  of 
the  will  of  the  people  as  collected  from  the  decrees 
of  the  Senate,  the  laws  of  the  Twelve  Tables,  the 
enactments  of  the  militia  in  what  was  called  the 
Comitia  Centuriata,  in  the  plebiscites  of  the  Tribes, 
and  the  edicts  of  the  Praetors. ''^  There  was  no  pre- 
tense of  religion  in  these  laws.  The  Plebeians 
could  not  participate  in  the  family  religion  of  the 

[a)     i.  Comitia  Curiata. 

ii.  Senatus  Consulata B.C.  735-222  ^^^^  _ 

iii.  Laws  of  the  XII  Tables B.C.  450 

iv.  Plebiscites  of  the  Tributa 446 

V.  Leges  Centuriata 450 

vi.  Edicts  of  the  Pnttor 364 


lOi  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Patricians,  and  the  mythological  one,  wliicli  grew 
up  from  a  personification  and  deification  of  tlie 
elements  of  nature,  liad  no  moral  force.  De  Qaincej 
says,^  "Tlie  religion  of  these  Olympian  or  Homeric 
gods,  in  the  eye  of  a  Pagan,  had  no  relation  what- 
ever to  morals.  Pagan  religion,  apart  from  ances- 
tral worship,  arose  in  no  motive,  but  an  impulse. 
It  arrived  at  no  distant  prize  ahead;  it  only  fled 
from  a  danger  behind.  The  gods  of  the  Pagans 
were  wicked  natures,  to  be  feared  and  propitiated. 
And  thus  it  was  that,  in  terror,  blind  terror,  as 
against  power  in  the  hands  of  divine  wickedness, 
arose  the  ancient  religions  of  Paganism,^  that  is, 
the  mythological  religion.  There  was  no  doctrinal 
part.  Ceremonies  were  all  of  it."  The  sycophants 
even  did  not  pretend  to  love  their  gods."  They 
would  have  kicked  Jupiter  if  they  could.  If  the 
city  gods  did  not  defend  the  city  when  in  danger, 
men  even  went  so  far,  in  spite  of  their  general  fear 
of  these  gods,  as  to  overturn  their  altars  and  stone 
their  temples.  Indeed,  the  veneration  of  these 
city  gods,  at  a  very  early  day  in  Greece,  became 
so  weakened  that  the  Greek  imagination  allowed 


(a)  1  vol.    Theological  Essay  on  Christianity  as  an  organ  of 
political  movement. 
(h)  De  Quinccy.    Id. 
(f)  Mori  vale's  Conversion  of  Roman  Empire:  sec.  11. 


LEGES.  105 

itself  to  be  turned  aside  by  more  splendid  temples 
of  some  new  god,  richer  legends,  and  more  beau- 
tiful statues/  All  altars  would  be  deserted  for 
those  of  the  gods  of  Phidias  and  Praxitiles.  It 
was  the  form,  not  the  morals,  of  their  gods  that 
won  worshippers.  The  Greeks  worshipped  beauty. 
The  divinity  of  the  city  gods  they  represented  was 
a  sentiment  and  not  a  conviction.  It  is  obvious 
thiit  such  a  religion  could  have  only  a  deleterious 
influence  upon  a  civilization.  There  was  no  moral 
fibre  to  it — nothing,  like  the  worship  of  dead  an- 
cestors, for  the  heart — nothing  for  the  conscience 
— nothing  for  the  world's  best  life — nothing  but  a 
spectacular  worship  from  which  the  soul  had  de- 
parted. Thus,  through  all  the  enterprises  of  com- 
merce, colonizations,  international  wars,  the  arts, 
though  all  these  were  nominally  under  the  super- 
vision of  religion  and  the  priests,  the  Patricians 
were  led  to  look  beyond  their  sacred  altars  at 
home,  and  the  Plebeians  beyond  the  Prytaneum  of 
the  city,  and  gradually,  from  losing  sight  of  their 
earlier  faiths,  respectively,  became  at  last  to  be- 
lieve in  none. 

i.     Leges.     The   laws   from  which   all   religious 
basis  of  morality  had  departed  were  these :    The 

in]  A.  C.  301. 


106  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

original  assembly  of  citizens  at  Kome  was  tbe 
comitia  curiata,  or  assembly  of  Patricians  as  priests 
in  the  consecrated  temples;  but  this  was  the  last 
religious  legislature,  and  was  soon  replaced,  by 
Servius  Tullius,  by  the  comitia  centuriata,  in  which 
the  Patricians  and  Plebeians  met  together  in  the 
Campus  31artius  as  they  did  in  the  army,  and  in 
which  the  right  of  voting  was  allowed  according  to 
a  property  qualification.  The  secularization  of  the 
law  began  with  this  change.  In  this  comitia  those 
leges  or  laws  were  passed  which  are  mentioned  as 
one  of  the  sources  of  law :  criminals  were  tried  and 
magistrates  were  nominated.  At  first  its  enact- 
ments required  the  sanction  of  the  comitia  curiata 
-the  assembly  of  the  Patricians;  but  when  that 
necessity  ceased,  the  curiata  was  only  summoned 
for  the  transaction  of  certain  formal  business,  such, 
as  acloptions,  abrogations,  and  the  making  of  testa- 
ments. Curiata  law  was  strictly  class  law.  The 
Patricians  claimed  that  they  only  had  families,  and 
they  only  could  adopt.  The  religious  curiata  de- 
creased as  the  non-religious  centuriuta  correlatively 
increased. 

ii.  Plebiscites.  This  comitia  centuriata,  or  mass- 
meetings  of  the  citizens  in  their  order,  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  comitia  tributa,  in  which  the  voter, 


PLEBISCITES.  107 

instead  of  claiming  his  riglit  by  a  property  qualifi- 
cation, claimed  it  by  residing  in  a  particular  dis- 
trict or  tribe.  The  laws  passed  by  this  assembly 
of  the  tribes  originally  bound  none  but  the  Ple- 
beians, hence  their  name  of  Plebiscite;  but  in  the 
year  286  B.C.  the  law  of  Hortensius  made  them 
binding  on  all  Roman  citizens.  By  this,  the  relig- 
ious force  was  still  weaker,  and  the  non-religious 
correlatively  stronger. 

iii.  Senatiis-Consulta.  The  other  legislative 
body  was  the  Senate.  Under  the  Kings  this  royal 
council  was  composed  of  the  wealthiest  and  most 
illustrious  Patricians,  and  was  to  the  King  what 
the  Cabinet  is  to  modern  Kings  or  Presidents. 
Until  the  close  of  the  Republic,  it  does  not  appear 
to  have  had  the  direct  power  of  enacting  laws; 
nevertheless,  its  orders  issued  to  magistrates  bound 
those  subject  to  their  jurisdiction.  Moreover,  it 
exercised  a  dispensary  power  with  respect  to  indi- 
viduals, and  even  made  additions  to  certain  laws; 
but,  in  general,  its  functions  were  more  administra- 
tive than  legislative.  But,  from  the  time  of  Augus- 
tus, the  senatus-consuUa,  or  ordinances  of  the 
Senate,  became  a  fruitful  source  of  law;  thence- 
forward till  the  time  of  Severus,  A.D.  222,  they 
are  numerous.     After  Hadrian's  time,  it  became 


108  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

usual  to  add  to  a  seiiatus-consulta  the  formula, 
Auctore  D.  Hadrlano,  wliicli  shows  the  dependence 
of  the  Senate  On  the  Emperor.-'^  Power  became 
centralized,  and  went  from  the  many  to  the  few, 
and  then  to  the  one.  The  law  of  correlation  was 
as  constantly  at  work  here  as  it  ever  is. 

iv.  The  Laios  of  the  XII  Tables.  In  early  Home 
the  Patricians  were  the  State,  Their  laws  were  a 
body  of  family  rules,  deduced  from  their  ancestraj 
religion,  embodied  in  tradition^  and  ascertained  by 
custom.  The  Plebeians  became  a  power  in  the 
city,  and  demanded  a  written  code,  that  they 
might  know  for  themselves  what  these  laws  were. 
They  do  not  seem  to  have  desired  to  repeal  them; 
only  to  know  what  they  were,  and  to  share  in 
their  administration.  Power  now  begins  to  drift 
in  correlative  equivalence  from  the  few  to  the 
many.  As  the  Patrician  laws  were  strictly  re- 
ligious laws,  law  now  begins  also  to  find  its  new 
authority  in  secular  force. 

These  tables,  it  is  said,  treated  of  lawsuits;  of 
thefts  and  robberies;  of  loans,  and  the  rights  of 
creditors  over  debtors;  of  parental  rights;  of  in- 
heritances and  guardianships;  of  property  and 
possession;  of  trespasses  and  damages;  of  estates 

(d)  Introduction  to  Cumins'  Manual  of  Civil  Law. 


ANCIENT  COUETS.  109 

in  the  countrj;  of  community  rights  of  the  people; 
of  funerals;  of  worship;  aucl  forbidding  intermar- 
riage with  Patricians.  If  the  coimuhium,  or  right 
of  the  Plebeians  to  intermarry  with  the  Patricians, 
was  not  granted  by  this  last  table,  it  was  granted 
the  next  year  by  a  law  upon  that  subject,  proposed 
by  the  Tribune  Cornulius.  There  were  laws  also 
fixing  the  age  of  majority  of  infants;  laws  allowing 
a  creditor  to  attach  the  property,  but  not  the  per- 
son, of  his  debtor;  laws  prohibitiug  candidates 
from  soliciting  votes  at  fairs  and  markets;  laws 
that  no  one  should  bind,  injure,  or  kill  any  Roman 
citizen;   and  laws  forbidding  nepotism. 

III.  THE  ANCIENT  COURTS. 

1.    THE    RELIGIOUS    COURTS    DISPLACED. 

The  Twelve  Tables  which  the  Patricians  wrote 
out  for  the  use  of  the  Plebeians,  from  their  re- 
ligious customs,  required  an  interpreter.  Being 
the  mere  record  of  religious  and  family  customs 
already  known,  and  in  living  force  at  the  time, 
they  were  laconic  in  expression,  and  left  much  to 
construction.  At  first,  the  Patricians  undertook 
this  necessary  ofiice,  because  they  were  alone  in- 
structed in  the  forms  of  the  legis  aciiones,  or  sup- 
posed will  of  the  ancestral  gods — which  gods  were 


110  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

exclusively  the  boast  of  the  Patricians,  and  their 
forms  of  hymns  and  prayers  were  absolutely  neces- 
sary to  move  the  will  of  their  gods.  As  to  law 
days,  there  were  dies  fasti  and  nefasti.  But  in  the 
year  B.C.  312,  Cn.  Flavins,  a  scribe  to  a  blind  Pa- 
trician, surreptitiously  published  a  calendar  of  all 
laAv  days,  and  a  volume  of  forms  of  action. 
Thenceforward,  the  monopoly  enjoyed  by  the 
Patricians  declined.  This  change  was  completed 
when  T.  Coricanus,  the  first  Plebeian  Pontifex 
Maximus,  B.C.  281,  introduced  the  practice  of 
giving  legal  advice.  This  was  but  the  explanation 
of  the  religious  ritual.  Others  followed  his  ex- 
ample, and  hence  arose  the  Jurispnide)des,  or  ju- 
risperiti,  who  walked  the  forum  and  acted  as  advo- 
cates. Augustus  afterward  gave  the  opinions  of 
these  Juris'prudentes  the  force  of  law.* 

2.  THE  NON-BELIGIOUS  COURTS  TO  BE  SUBSTITUTED. 

(a)  Frcdor  Urhaiins.  Another  change  of  the  law 
in  the  course  of  these  revolutions  was  further 
effected  through  a  judge  called  a  Pnx3tor.  When 
the  Consuls,  being  engaged  in  almost  continual 
wars,  could  not  attend  to  the  administration  of 
justice,  a  magistrate  was  created  for  that  purpose 

(a)  Cumins'  Introduction  to  Civil  Law,  p.  H. 


PRiETOR  URBANUS.  Ill 

B.C.  3G5,  to  wliom  the  name  of  Praetor  was  thence- 
forth appropriated.  The  first  was  Sp.  Furius  Ca- 
miUus,  son  of  the  great  dictator.  His  duties 
were  taken  from  the  executive  department.  We 
have  in  modern  times  dissolved  the  sovereign 
powers  of  government,  and  redistributed  them 
into  the  present  co-ordination  of  the  executive, 
legishitive,  and  judicial  departments.  Each  de- 
partment retains  so  much,  and  no  more,  of  that 
sovereign  power,  which  originally  was  one,  as  was 
necessary  for  its  own  efficiency. 

The  Praetor  who  administered  justice  only  be- 
tween citizens  was  called  Pmotor  Urbanus,  and 
the  edicts  or  laws  derived  from  him  are  called  jus 
honorarium.  In  the  absence  of  the  Consuls,  he 
supplied  their  place  in  administration.  When  the 
Praetor  entered  on  his  office,  after  having  sv^'orn  to 
the  observance  of  the  laws,  he  published  an  edict, 
or  system  of  rules,  according  to  which  he  was  to 
administer  justice  for  that  year.  Having  sum- 
moned an  assembly  of  the  people,  he  publicly  de- 
clared, from  the  rostra,  what  method  he  was  to  ob- 
serve in  administering  justice.  This  edict  he 
ordered  not  only  to  be  recited  by  the  herald,  but 
also  to  be  posted  up  in  writing,  in  large  letters,  in 
the  Forum.     Y/hat  was  good  in  the  edicts  of  for- 


112  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

mer  Prajtors  lie  retained,  and  added  sucli  new  pro- 
visions as  the  necessities  of  a  progressive  social 
state  required.  But  all  his  proclamations  were 
upon  the  basis  of  Koman  law,  as  distinguished 
from  law  as  based  upon  universal  reason.  For 
three  hundred  years  law  had  been  separating  itself, 
more  and  more,  from  the  narrow  national  customs 
evolved  from  a  family  religion,  rather  than  from  a 
religion  for  the  world.  It  was  still  more  or  less 
assimilated  to  a  religion  no  longer  believed.  As 
law  gradually  developed  from  the  organization  and 
religion  of  a  Patrician  famih',  to  serve  the  social 
condition  of  a  conquering  people,  it  needed  to  be 
further  liberalized,  by  separating  itself  entirely 
from  these  superstitions  beliefs,  and  by  recogniz- 
ing and  absorbing  into  its  conclusions  the  wider 
wisdom  of  the  world.  Up  to  this  time  only 
Romans  had  rights  in  Rome.  Strangers  had  no 
place  before  the  courts  or  the  law.  And  wliy 
could  not  strangers  appeal  to  the  Prictor  Urba- 
nus?  For  the  reason  that  this  Pra)tor  adminis- 
tered only  the  law  that  originated  in  a  local  re- 
ligion, as  shown  by  Do  Coulange;  and  as  an  alien 
had  no  part  in  the  Roman  family  or  religion,  so  he 
had  none  in  the  Roman  law.  But  change  went  on. 
(h)    The  Praiov  Fcrcf/rutns.      Up  to  this   time, 


PR^TOE  PEREGRINUS.  113 

as  just  saiJ,  law  was  based  on  local  religious 
notions,  and  was  called  the  jns  civile,  as  opposed 
to  law  based  on  universal  reason  and  justice, 
called  jus  gentium.  An  entire  change  in  this 
respect  came  at  the  appointment  of  the  PrEetor 
Peregrinus,  B.C.  247. 

This  PriBtor  pre-announced,  in  his  annual  edict, 
those  principles  of  universal  reason  and  justice 
upon  which  he  would  administer  law  during  his 
year.  Law  now  grew  entirel}^  on  its  popular  side, 
and  not  on  its  religious.  The  Prajtor  was  in  the 
place  of  the  priest.  To  the  law  for  the  family  had 
been  added  the  law  for  the  clan  and  for  the 
stranger.  Of  the  institutions  derived  from  super- 
stition the  law  retained  what  it  must,  and  added 
those  of  reason,  as  there  Avas  occasion.  Of  the 
rest  of  the  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  the  Ke- 
public,  between  eighty  and  one  hundred,  or  from 
a  third  to  a  half,  were  occupied  by  the  Punic, 
Macedonian,  and  Mithridatic  wars. 

The  centre  of  law  now  passed  from  its  special 
circle  in  the  narrow  national  religious  law  called 
jus  civile,  to  the  universal  circle  of  jus  geutium,  or 
the  law  of  universal  reason,  common  to  the  whole 
world.  The  one  had  contracted  inversely  as  the 
other  expanded.      The  one  displaced  the  other, 


114  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

just  as  the  golden  crown  to  be  weighed  by  Archi- 
medes displaced  its  own  bulk  of  water  in  which 
he  placed  it. 

The  basing  of  law  upon  the  conclusions  of  uni- 
versal reason  was  hit  upon  and  gradually  devel- 
oped and  defined  in  the  administration  of  the  jus 
gentium.  This  was  original  as  a  principle  of  law 
in  Rome,  as  it  was  about  the  same  time  an  orig- 
inal, though  changing,  principle  of  philosophy 
with  Zeno,  the  Stoic,  in  Greece.  Neither  derived 
it  from  the  other. 

Moral  ideas  and  law  become  universal  jast  as 
people  become  cosmopolitan. 

"Athens  and  Eome  gave  the  foreigner  a  good 
reception,  both  for  commercial  and  political  rea- 
sons. But  neither  their  good-will  nor  their  inter- 
est could  abolish  the  ancient  laws  which  religion 
had  established.''  This  religion  did  not  permit 
the  stranger  to  become  a  proprietor,  because 
he  could  not  have  any  part  in  the  religious 
soil  of  the  city.  It  permitted  neither  the  for- 
eigner to  inherit  from  the  citizen,  nor  the  citizen 
to  inherit  from  the  foreigner,  because  every  trans- 
mission of  property  carried  with  it  the  transmis- 
sion of  a  worship;  and  it  was  as  impossible  for 

(a)  ('oulaii<ic,  Ancient  City,  2(53. 


EARLY  JUEISCONSULTS.  115 

the  citizen  to  perform  the  foreigner's  worship  as 
for  the  foreigner  to  perform  the  citizen's  worship." 
The  law  now  stood  distinctly  apart  from  all  pontifi- 
cal restrictions  and  interpretation,  and  authenti- 
cated itself  by  the  credential  of  universal  reason. 

(c)  Early  Jarisconsjdts.  The  first  of  these  dis- 
tinctively known  as  Jurisconsults  was  Quintius 
Mucins  Scsevola.  He  was  the  instructor  of  Cic- 
ero, and  is  the  earliest  jurist  mentioned  in  the 
Pandects.  He  collected  the  opinions  of  previous 
lawyers  (which  must  have  been  upon  the  ancient 
religious  customs),  compiled  a  body  of  law  in 
eighteen  volumes,  and  gave  a  better  order  to  the 
civil  code.  Publius  Mucins  SciTevola,  his  father, 
was  also  eminent  as  a  jurist.  Gibbon  says^  that 
"the  Mucian  race  Avas  long  renowned  for  its 
hereditary  knowledge  of  the  civil  law."  Cicero** 
says  that,  at  that  time,  in  the  advanced  old  age  of 
Quintius  Mucins,  "multitudes  of  citizens  and  men 
of  the  greatest  distinction  resorted  to  his  house 
for  advice."  The  maxim,  Fiat  justicia,  mat  cmlum, 
was  his.° 

Servius  Sulpicins  Etifiis  was   about   the   same 

"    (rt)  Decline  and  Fall  K.  E.,  Ch.  44. 
(h)  De  Oratore,  Bk.  1,  xliv. 
(f)  Cruttwell's  Hist.  Ho.  Lit.  131. 


116  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

age  of  Cicero,  and  Lis  early  friend.  Ho  en- 
joyed the  reputation  of  being  tlie  first  lawyer  of 
bis  time,  or  of  all  who  liad  ever  studied  law  as  a 
profession  in  Kome.  Cicero,  in  his  Ninth  Phi- 
lipic,  says  of  him:  "The  praise  of  all  mortals 
will  forever  celebrate  his  wisdom,  his  firmness, 
his  loyalty,  his  admirable  vigilance  and  prudence, 
in  upholding  the  interests  of  the  public.  Nor  will 
that  admirable,  and  incredible,  and  almost  god- 
like skill  of  his,  in  interpreting  the  laws  and  ex- 
plaining the  principles  of  equity,  be  buried  in 
silence.  If  all  the  men  of  all  ages,  who  have  ever 
had  any  acquaintance  with  the  law  in  this  city, 
were  got  together  in  one  place,  they  would  not 
deserve  to  be  compared  to  Servius  Sulpitius. 
Nor  was  he  more  skillful  in  explaining  the  law 
than  in  laying  down  the  principles  of  justice. 
Those  maxims  which  were  derived  from  Lnv  he 
constantly  referred  to  the  original  principles  of 
kindness  and  equity." 

Cicero,  in  his  Commonwealth,'*  makes  Cato  say, 
"that  the  government  of  Eome  was  superior  t-o  that 
of  other  states,  for  this  reason :  because  in  nearly 
all  of  them  there  had  been  single  individuals,  each 
of  whom  had  regulated  their  commonwealth  ac- 
(a)  Bk.  II,  1. 


THE  ROMAN   CONSTITUTION.  117 

corcliug  to  their  oavii  laws  and  their  own  ordinances. 
So  Minos  had  done  in  Crete,  and  Lycurgus  in 
Sparta;  and  in  Athens,  which  experienced  so  many 
revolutions,  first  Thesiis,  then  Draco,  then  Solon, 
then  Clisthenes,  and  afterward  many  others;  a,nd, 
lastly,  when  it  was  almost  lifeless  and  quite  pros- 
trate, that  great  and  wise  man,  Demetrius  Phaler- 
eus,  supported  it.  But  our  Boman  constitution, 
on  the  contrary,  did  not  spring  from  the  genius  of 
one  individual,  but  from  many;  and  it  was  estab- 
lished, not  in  the  life-time  of  any  one  man,  but  in 
the  course  of  several  ages  and  centuries.  For, 
added  he,  there  never  yet  existed  any  genius  so 
vast  and  comprehensive  as  to  allow  nothing  at  any 
time  to  escape  its  attention,  and  all  the  geniuses 
in  the  world,  united  in  a  single  mind,  could  never, 
within  the  limits  of  a  single  life,  exert  a  foresight 
sufficiently  extensive  to  embrace  and  harmonize 
all,  without  the  aid  of  experience  and  practice." 

Here,  for  awhile,  we  lose  sight  of  religion  as  a 
source  of  morality  and  law.  Its  influence  upon 
both  has  ceased.  As  the  religious  force  receded, 
the  civil  advanced.  The  minimum  of  the  former 
was  the  maximum  of  the  latter.  The  Priest  has 
gone  and  the  Prietor  has  come. 

At  Cajsar  culminated  all  the  forces  of  ancient 


118  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Aryan  civilization  then  in  Europe.  Servius  Tul- 
lius,  B.C.  500,  had  secularized  the  ancient  sacer- 
dotal constitution  of  Komulus  and  Numa.  The 
human  element  of  civilization  had  entirely  cor- 
related or  exchanged  places  with  the  element 
before  supposed  to  be  divine.  It  was  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end.  From  the  altars  of  faith — super- 
stition if  you  will — mankind  turned  into  the  dark- 
ness of  universal  doubt,  and  the  lights  of  the  sacred 
altars  went  out  in  a  midnight  of  horrors.  Servius 
dethroned  the  ancestral  gods,  and  C?esar  enthroned 
a  line  of  despots. 

At  CsBsar  the  old  civilization  ends,  and  the  new 
begins.  The  moral  and  the  immoral  are  ever  in 
ebb  and  flow.  Of  one  thing  we  may  be  sure,  that 
j2.,  no  pr^scrij)tion  runs  against  the  omniscience  and 
omnipotence  of  a  correlation  that  throbs  and  pul- 
sates through  external  eons,  holding  in  trust  the 
ultimate  perfection  of  all  things  perfectible.  The 
command  of  nature  is,  "harmonize  or  perish." 
Her  creed  is  Progress,  and  her  psalm  is  Hope. 


LECTUEE  II.— Continued. 
THE   SECOND   CORRELATION. 

The  Keligiotjs  (Polytheistic)  Basis  of  Mobalitx  Displaced,  and  the 
Philosophical  Basis  Coekelatively  Substituted.     (See  Figure  5.) 

In  Borne  we  have  seen  Polytheism,  witli  its 
domestic  institutions  resting  on  a  sanction  sup- 
posed to  be  divine,  displaced;  and  institutions, 
both  public  and  private,  resting  on  the  collective 

Fig.  5. 
Romulus — 735  B.  C. 


Maximum  of  Ee- 

LIGION. 

1.  The  will  of  the  hum;iri 

gods  (ancestral^  as  the 
basis  of  morality  and 
law.    General  Morality. 

2.  The  will  of    the    siipe] 

human  gods,  Mjthol- 
ogy,  slightly  affects 
morality.  Both  per- 
ished before  the  skep- 
ticism of  the  Philoso- 
phers. 

3.  Maximum  of  Immorality 

Minimum  of    Ee- 

LIGION. 


aiKMKr4mmrm 


Minimum  of 
Philosophy. 


I,  The  personal  basis  of 
morality  in  the  intel- 
lect of  man,  as  taught 
by  Socrates. 

■2.  The  impersonal  basis  in 
in  the  order  of  nature, 
as  taught  by  Zeuo,  the 
Stole. 


3.  Ma.vimura  of  Immorality. 

Maximum  of 
Philosophy. 


C^.SAR. 


120  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

will  of  a  whole  populatioD,  correlatively  substi- 
tuted. In  Greece,  this  same  Polytheism  was  dis- 
placed, not  only  by  this  political  power,  but  also 
by  the  skeptical  speculations  of  the  philosophers, 
respecting  both  matter  and  morality.  Faith  was 
displaced  by  doubt.  For  nearly  two  hundred 
years,  from  Thales  to  Socrates,  the  inquiry  was 
into  the  origin  of  matter.  Socrates  turned  the 
attention  of  all  to  the  Tightness  of  human  con- 
duct, and  the  basis  of  the  happiness  of  man.  The 
moralists  difiered  in  opinion  as  widely  as  the  ma- 
terialists. Polytheism  had  failed,  and  the  era  of 
Monotheism  was  dawning  on  the  Pagan  ages.  A 
reasonable  doubt  of  the  old  religion  led  to  a  rea- 
sonable faith  in  the  new. 

The  following  table  summarizes  the  doctrines  of 
Ancient  Moral  Philosophy: 


ANCIENT  MORAL  PHILOSOPHY. 
TABLE. 


121 


SCHOOL. 

SUBJECT. 

NAME. 

SOCRATIC 

jSIorality 

KnoMledge  is  virtue. 

Socrates,  b.  4G9  B.  C. 

Intuition 

Plato,  ^gina,  430,  d.  349. 
Euclid,  Magara. 

Megaeic 

Refutation 

Cynic 

Self-indulgence  an  evil. 

Antisthenes, .444. 

Diogenes,  Sinope. 

Cyrenaic 

Self-indulgence  a  good. 

Aristippus,  Cyrene,  435. 

Academy 

Speusijjpus. 
Xenocrates. 

Old 

MidiUe 

Nothingcertainly  known 
Nothing  naturally  good 
or  bad. 

Arcesilaus, 315. 

New 

Develops  Probabilism.  . 
Truth  has  no  criterion .  . 

Carneades, 214-129. 

Peripatetic  . . . 

Experience 

Ethical  conclusions  only 
probable 

Aristotle,  Stagira, .  .384. 

Epicureanism  . 

Prudent  pleasures 

Epicurus, 342-271. 

The  rule  for  man  is  in 

Lucretius. 

man  himself 

Grecian   ) 
Stoicism  \ 

Will  and  cliaracter 

Zeno,  b.  circ.  340,d.2G0. 

The  rule  not  in  man,  but 

in  nature. 

Theology 

Cleanthes. 

Moral  conduct 

Chrysippus, .   . .  .d.  208. 

Ajjathy  softens    with 

sympathy 

Panwtius 180-111. 

Philosophers  expelled 

from  Rome  by  Cato, 

155. 

Roman  Stoicism 

New  Academy 

Posedonius,  Syria. 
Cicero 106-43. 

ANNO      ) 

Rhetorical  moralist .... 

Seneca,  Cordiilm,   3-65. 

DOMINI  1 

Philosophers      banished 
by  Vespasian,  70-79. 

Religious  moralist 

Epictetus,    Phrygia,    d. 

Good  principles  innate. 

circ.  94. 

Philosophers     banished 

by  Domitian 94 

Contemplative  moralist. 

M.  Aurelius,  ..120-180. 

122  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

I.  IS  MAN  IN  HIMSELF  A  SUFFICIENT  MORAL 
CENTEE  OF  HIS  OWN  PERSONAL  LIFE? 

Among  those  who  held  that  he  is  was  Socrates.'^ 
He  thought  that  the  moral  basis  or  centre  of  con- 
duct was  not  only  in  man,  but  that  it  was  pre-em- 
inently on  the  intellectual  side  of  his  nature. 
With  him  and  his  school,  knowledge  is  virtue,  and 
ignorance  is  vice.  He  said  that  it  was  impossible 
for  man  to  do  the  wrong,  if  he  knew  the  right;  yet 
the  necessities  of  society  reply  that  ignorance  is 
no  excuse.  Ignoraiitla  juris  iieminem  excused.  It 
is  a  proverb,  that  "men  know  the  right,  yet  the 
wrong  pursue."  "The  good  we  would  do  we  do 
not,  and  the  evil  we  would  avoid,  that  we  do." 

If  the  Sophists  before  and  after  Socrates  were  to 
be  heeded,  the  intellectual  side  of  man  is  the  least 
to  be  trusted.  Protagoras'"  taught  that  things  are 
as  they  seem  to  be  to  each  man.  But  as  things 
seem  different  to  difiereut  minds,  there  could  be 
no  unanimous  knowledge.  Gorgias''  landed  in  ab- 
solute nihilism.  His  maxims  were :  {a)  Nothing  is; 
for,  if  anything  is,  it  must  be  either  derived  or 

(a)  b.  4G9  B.  C. 

(b)  b.  about  490  B.  C. 

(c)  b.  427  B.  (.;. 


THE   SKEPTICS.  123 

eternal.  It  can  not  be  eternal,  for  the  eternal  is 
infinite,  and  the  infinite  can  neither  divide  nor 
impart  itself.  It  can  not  impart  itself  to  itself,  and 
to  impart  itself  to  something  not  itself  is  to  destroy 
its  infinity,  (b)  If  anything  is,  it  can  not  be  known 
without  omniscience,  for  partial  knowledge  is 
equivalent  to  no  knowledge,  (c)  If  anything  can 
be  known,  it  can  not  be  imparted  to  others;  for  no 
two  minds  think  alike,  and  no  two  use  words  in 
the  same  sense. 

Pyrrho,  the  skeptic,*^  equally  excluded  the  moral 
centre  of  life  from  the  intellect  of  man.  He  held 
that  there  was  no  criterion  of  truth.  Contradic- 
tion implies  uncertainty.  The  skeptics  asserted 
nothing,  not  even  that  they  did  not  assert.  Ap- 
pearance is  all,  and  that  is  uncertain. 

According  to  Arcesilaus'^  and  Carneades,°  both 
of  the  New  Academy,  nothing  is  known  for  a  cer- 
tainty of  the  real  existence  or  nature  of  things,  and 
our  knowledge  falls  into  the  domain  of  the  probable. 

The  skeptics  made  the  end  of  life  to  be  the  at- 
tainment of  a  perfect  equanimity,  and  the  differ- 
ence between  good  and  bad  to  be  the  result  of 

(a)  d.  270  B.  C. 

(b)  h.  315  B.  C. 
(f)  b.  213  B.  C. 


124  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

convention,  not  of  nature.  The  Academicians  did 
not  differ  much  in  this  when  they  accepted  con- 
formity to  custom  as  the  philosophy  of  life.  With 
both  there  was  no  essential  difference  between 
right  and  wrong.  They  held  it  to  be  wise  to  do 
what  could  be  done,  not  what  ought  to  be  done. 
Life,  with  them,  was  without  a  basis  or  centre  of 
morality,  and  even  without  a  morality  at  all.  Still, 
while  Socrates  overestimated  intelligence  as  a  cen- 
tre of  morality,  he  could  not  too  much  magnify  its 
importance  as  a  help  to  find  the  centre.  All 
threads  of  the  wire-cable  support  the  bridge. 

Aristotle  placed  the  moral  centre  not  only  in 
man,  but  specially  in  his  toill;  not  like  Socrates, 
his  teacher,  in  man's  hioivledge.  Aristotle  taught 
that  virtue  is  a  golden  mean,  and  is  in  man's  pru- 
dent habits  or  states  of  the  Avill. 

Epicurus  placed  the  moral  centre  also  not  only 
in  man,  bnt  in  his  prudent  pleasures.  His 
four  canons  were:  (a)  the  pleasure  which  produces 
no  pain  is  to  be  embraced;  (b)  the  pain  which  pro- 
duces no  pleasure  is  to  be  avoided;  (c)  the  pleas- 
ure is  to  bo  avoided  which  prevents  a  greater 
pleasure,  or  Avhich  produces  a  greater  pain;  {d) 
the  pain  is  to  be  endured  which  averts  a  greater 
]iain,  or  secures  a  greater  pleasure. 


MODERN    SYSTEMS.  125 

In  addition  to  these  subjective  theories  of  the 
ancients  are  the  subjective  theories  of  the  mod- 
erns. Mandeville  placed  moral  conduct  in  human 
pride,  and  said  that  "man  has  many  impulses, 
but  among  the  strongest  is  that  of  pride,  which  in- 
duces to  self-denial  in  other  things,  that  it  may 
jBnd  more  than  its  equivalent  in  the  praise  that  is 
returned;  and  the  whole  of  virtue  is  found  in  the 
vanity  that  is  satisfied  by  flattery."  ^ 

Adam  Smith  based  moral  conduct  on  human 
sympathy,  and  said  that  "in  morals  we  change 
places  in  thought  with  the  actor;  and  if  we  deem 
that  we  should  approve  of  the  act  as  a  spectator, 
we  affirm  it  to  be  right,  and  wrong  if  we  did  not 
so  sympathize  with  it."  Others,  again,  have 
traced  moral  distinctions  to  an  inner  sense  in  man. 
Shaftesbury  and  Hutcheson  teach  that  man  has  a 
sense  to  perceive  right  and  wrong,  as  well  as 
senses  for  color,  sound,  and  taste.  This  moral 
sense  is  each  man's  source  of  all  obligation,  and 
to  him  his  measure  of  all  virtue.  Dr.  Brown 
founded  moral  conduct  on  an  average  moral  senti- 
ment. F.  Schlegel  supposed  an  individual  con- 
science, awed  by  a  being  above  man.  Others, 
again,   like  Cudwortli,  Kant,  and  Coleridge,  sup- 

(a)  Hickox,  Moral  Science,  p.  30. 


126  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

pose  that  the  human  mind  is  encIoAved  witli  iutui- 
tloii,  or  an  instantaneous  vision  of  truth.  Right 
is  right,  because  the  mind  sees  it  to  be  right,  and 
that  is  an  end  of  it."^  These  theories  all  have  a 
measure  of  truth  in  them,  and  are,  therefore, 
neither  universally  and  exclusively  true,  nor  uni- 
versally and  exclusively  false. 

But,  however  much  we  may  laud  man's  knowl- 
edge, prudence,  instinct  of  happiness,  pride  of 
character,  tenderness  of  sympathy,  inner  sense,  or 
intuitive  grasp  of  truth,  all  history  and  observa- 
tion convinces  us  that 

II.  FOE  FULL  MORAL  ENDS  THE  MORAL 
BASIS  IS  NOT  IN  MAN. 

If  we  legislate  for  man,  we  must  know  the  na- 
ture of  man  for  whom  we  legislate.  Does  he  need 
help,  and  how  much,  and  of  wdiat  kind  ?  Let  us 
examine  the  facts  of  this  nature  under  three  prop- 
ositions: Human  nature  is  down,  however  it  may 
be  accounted  for;  whether  it  was  originally  down 
and  has  ever  been  rising,  or  was  originally  elevated 
and  fell  back;  if  it  is  ever  to  rise,  it  must  be 
helped  up,  as  it  can  not  fully  help  itself  up;  when 

(a)  Id. 


IS  HUMAN   NATURE   FALLEN.  127 

np  it  must  be  held  up,  as  it  cau  not  constantly  liolcl 
itself  up. 

1.    HUMAN   NATURE   IS   DOWN,  WHETHER   ORIGINALLY  OR  BY 
A  FALL. 

Tlie  moral  prostration  of  man's  nature  is  as  mucli 
a  provable  fact  as  that  of  liis  form,  stature,  color, 
weiglit,  or  anything  in  his  history.  Nothing  is 
easier  than  to  prove  human  degradation.  Whether 
it  began  down,  and  has  ever  been  rising,  or  began 
up  and  fell  back,  it  is  down.'^  It  is  daily  proved  in 
our  courts  by  sworn  testimony.  Somehow,  even 
the  human  intellect  is  an  unsatisfactory  power. 
The  very  multiplicity  of  philosophical  speculations 
and  schemes  of  material  science,  and  the  uncer- 
tainty and  inability  of  the  mind  uniformly  to  de- 
cide and  verify  the  truth  about  itself  or  anything 
else,  affect  its  authority  and  suggest  its  fallen 
state.  Human  nature  is  down  as  to  foresight,  for 
expectations  are  disappointed  and  hopes  fail  us. 
Human  nature  is  down  as  to  power;  for,  though 
man  has  life,  whether  as  a  gift  or  as  an  evolution, 
he  has  not,  does  not,  and  can  not  keep  it.  Francis 
Galton,  in  his  work  on  "Hereditary  Genius," 
argues  that  the  human  race  was  not  only  down, 

(a)  See  opinions  of  Ancient  Philosophy,  quoted  by  Merivale. 
Note  in  his  lecture  on  Conversion  of  Roman  Empire. 


128  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

but  utterly  savage  at  the  start.  He  says:  "The 
sense  of  original  sin  would  show,  according  to  my 
theory,  not  that  man  was  fallen  from  a  high  estate, 
but  that  he  was  rising  in  moral  culture  with  more 
rapidity  than  the  nature  of  his  race  could  follow. 
My  view  is  corroborated  by  the  conclusion  reached 
at  the  end  of  each  of  many  independent  lines  of 
ethnological  research — that  the  human  race  were 
utter  savages  in  the  beginning;  and  that,  after 
myriads  of  years  of  barbarism,  man  has  but-  very 
recently  found  his  way  into  paths  of  morality  and 
civilization." 

But,  though  thus  originally  down,  he  thinks 
human  nature  can  be  permanently  helped  up.  He 
says,  in  another  place : 

"I  argue  that,  as  a  new  race  can  be  obtained  in 
animals  and  plants,  and  can  be  raised  to  so  great 
a  degree  of  purity  that  it  will  maintain  itself,  with 
moderate  care  in  preventing  the  more  faulty  mem- 
bers of  the  flock  from  breeding,  so  a  race  of  gifted 
men  might  be  obtained  under  exactly  similar  con- 
ditions." 

Without  any  great  and  permanent  advance  there 
maybe  some  change,  in  a  generation  or  so;  but 
has  this  making  of  a  race  of  mongrels  and  hybrids 
to  order  over  been  permanently  done,  or  is  it  prac- 


EVERYTHING  HELPS  EVEEYTHING.       129 

ticable  to  be  done?    And  if  it  were,  would  not  men 
soon  become  gods? 

2.     IF  HUMAN  NATURE   IS  EVER  ELEVATED,  IT  MUST,  AS   SENECA 
SAID,"  BE  HELPED  UP,  FOR  IT  CAN  NOT  HELP  ITSELF  UP. 

Nothing,  not  even  liumanity,  is  alone  or  sufficient 
for  its  own  life.  Environment  is  for  man  as  well 
as  for  the  wheat  and  for  the  brute.  No  race  in- 
herits all  the  power  necessary  to  raise  itself  into 
highest  civilization.  Help  is  always  needed.  It 
is  said  that'  Greece  received  its  civilization  from 
Egypt,  and  Egypt  from  India.  However  this  may 
be,  Protagoras  was  right  in  magnifying  the  im- 
portance of  the  relation  of  things.  Without  rela- 
tions, nothing  is,  and  in  these  relations  each  thing 
helps  every  other  thing.  Is  Prof.  Tyndal  scien- 
tific in  claiming  that  "science  rejects  the  outside 
builder?"  He  himself  shall  answer  himself,  in  the 
same  sentence  from  which  I  quote  him.  "Sit- 
ting," he  says,  "in  the  summer  of  1855,  with  my 
friend  Dr.  Debus,  under  the  shadow  of  a  massive 
elm  on  the  bank  of  a  river  in  Normandy,  the  cur- 
rent of  our  thoughts  and  conversation  was  sub- 
stantially this:  We  regarded  the  tree  above  us. 
In  opposition  to  gravity  its  molecules  had  ascended, 

(«)  Epistles,  52,  sec.  2. 


130  THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 

diverged  into  brandies,  and  budded  into  innu- 
merable leaves.  What  caused  them  to  do  so — a 
power  external  to  themselves,  or  an  inherent 
force?  Science  rejects  the  outside  builder;  let  us 
therefore  consider  from  the  other  point  of  view  the 
experience  of  the  present  year.  A  low  tempera- 
ture had  kept  back  for  weeks  the  life  of  the  veg- 
etable world.  But  at  length  the  sun  gained  power 
— or,  rather,  the  cloud-screen  which  our  atmosphere 
had  drawn  between  him  and  us  was  removed — 
and  life  immediately  kindled  under  his  warmth. 
But  what  is  life,  and  how  can  solar  light  and  heat 
thus  affect  it?  Near  our  elm  was  a  silver-birch, 
with  its  leaves  rapidly  quivering  in  the  morning 
air.  We  had  here  motion,  but  not  the  motion  of 
life.  Each  leaf  was  a  mass  under  the  influence 
of  an  outside  force,  while  the  motion  of  life  was 
inlierent  and  molecular."'^  This  is  sufficient  for  our 
purpose.  The  growth  of  the  tree  upward  against 
the  law  of  gravitation,  and  the  motion  of  the  quiv- 
ering birchen  leaves  in  the  breeze  were  both  phe- 
nomena from  "outside"  help.  The  power  of  the 
sun  in  his  warmth  lifted  up  the  organizing  mole- 
cules of  sap  in  the  elm,  and  indirectly  caused  the 
motion  of  the  leaves  of  the  silver-birch.     Yerily, 

(n)   I'oimhir  Sci.  M.,  .hui.  1879,  p.  '271. 


THE   OUTSIDE   BUILDER.  131 

nothing  exists  exclusively  unto  itself.  Science 
can  find  no  life  in  tlie  molecules  of  the  elm  that 
was  to  be,  until  the  sun,  as  an  "outside  builder," 
commanded  the  molecules  to  work.  The  light,  the 
heat,  the  moisture,  and  the  soil  which  entered  into 
the  elm,  were  all  "outside  builders,"  building 
from  both  within  and  without.  The  color  of  the 
leaves,  which  consumed  all  other  colors  and  re- 
jected the  blue  and  the  yellow,  was  all  outside 
building.  Indeed,  as  the  Professor  says,  "the 
ladder  of  physical  reasoning  is  incompetent  to  lift 
US  above  the  veil  that  hides  the  Avorkings  of  the 
inner  and  the  outer  building  in  nature's  crypts." 
But  to  human  knowledge  there  is  no  building  from 
the  inside  without  a  building  from  the  outside. 
Modern  religions  are  optimists,  teaching  that 
supernatural  help  Avill  come,  as  the  warmth  of  the 
sun  descends  into  the  bosom  of  the  earth  and  the 
flowers. 

3.    WHEN  HUMAN  NATURE  IS   UP  IT  MUST    BE  HELD    UP,  FOR  IT 
CAN  NOT,  OR  WILL  NOT  HOLD  ITSELF  UP;  IT  DROPS  BACK. 

"  Owing  to  several  causes,  there  is  a  steady 
check  in  an  old  civilization  upon  the  fertility  of  the 
abler  classes;  the  imprudent  and  the  unambitious 
are  those  who  chiefly  keep  up  the  breed.  So  the 
race  gradually  deteriorates,  becoming  in  each  sue- 


132  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

cessive  generation  less  fitted  for  liigli  civilization, 
altliougli  it  retains  the  external  appearance  of  one, 
until  the  time  comes  when  the  whole  political  and 
social  fabric  caves  in,  and  a  greater  or  less  relapse 
to  barbarism  takes  place,  during  the  reign  of 
which  the  race  is,  perhaps,  able  to  recover  its 
tone."-'^ 

This  general  statement  as  to  the  inability  of  the 
human  race  to  keep  itself  up  is  sustained  by  the 
fact  that,  however  spasmodically  it  may  now  and 
then  leap  up,  it  constantly  drops  back,  as  proved 
by  the  history  of  genius  in  well-known  and  distin- 
guished families.  And,  though  an  investigation 
into  the  history  of  the  heredity  of  genius  in  three 
hundred  picked  families  shows  in  those  families 
five  hundred  and  eighty-five  .eminent  and  four  hun- 
dred and  fifteen  illustrious  meUj  or  over  three  to  a 
family,  yet  there  genius  dropped  off  again,  as  if  its 
power  were  exhausted.  And  though  it  was  also 
ascertained  that  exactly  one  half  of  those  illus- 
trious men  had  one  or  more  eminent  relations,  yet 
there  was  no  further  advance.  Humanity,  like  the 
tides  of  the  ocean,  now  rising  by  the  goodness  or 
the  severity  of  providence,  and  now  gravitating 


(a)  See  Caltoii  im   lliu-.  (Jeniiis;  1   Kitter  Hist.  Anc.  riiil.  174; 
Hiillaiii  Lit.  Kuiopo,  SI;   1  Clillet's  (Joel  in  Human  Tliouglit,  20. 


GENIUS  DIES   OUT.  133 

by  its  own  inherent  weakness,  solemnly  ebbs  and 
flows  with  the  throbbings  of  a  ceaseless  pulse. 

Man  rises  when  there  is  in  him  something  from 
above;  but  as  life  went  out  of  the  divine  man,  and 
left  only  a  corpse  on  the  cross,  when  the  Deity 
departed,  so  man  is  but  a  mere  animal  when  the 
spiritual  life  is  surrendered. 

"If  we  know  nothing  more  about  a  person  than 
that  he  is  a  father,  brother,  son,  or  grandson,  or 
other  relation  of  an  illustrious  man,  what  is  the 
chance  that  he  himself  is  or  will  be  eminent  ?  If 
his  father  be  illustrious,  it  is  one  to  two;  if  he  be 
only  eminent,  his  own  chance  for  eminence  is  one 
to  four.  If  a  man's  son  be  eminent,  the  chance  is 
one  to  six  that  the  father  himself  is  or  has  been 
eminent."  An  investigation  into  the  relationship  of 
thirty  Lord  Chancellors  showed  that  eight  tenths 
of  them  had  eminent  relations;  six  tenths  of  fifty- 
three  statesmen  had  eminent  relations,  and  so  had 
five  tenths  or  one  half  of  sixteen  premiers;  five 
tenths  of  fifty-nine  commanders;  seven  tenths  of 
fifty-six  literary  men;  four  tenths  of  one  hundred 
poets;  three  tenths  of  one  hundred  musicians; 
four  tenths  of  forty-two  painters;  two  tenths  of 
one  hundred  and  ninety-six  divines,  and  four 
tenths  of  thirty-six  scholars  had  eminent  relations, 


134  THE    UNITY    OF   LAW. 

giving  a  general  average  of  five  tenths  or  one  half 
of  the  relations  of  eminent  men  as  being  them- 
selves eminent.  In  contrast  to  the  eighty  per 
cent,  of  eminent  relations  of  the  thirty  chancellors, 
only  thirty-sis  per  cent,  of  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
six  lower  judges  had  eminent  relations. 

This  tendency  of  human  nature  to  drop  itself  is 
seen  all  through  the  statistics  of  inherited  genius. 
Though  one  hundred  and  nine  of  the  two  hundred 
and  fifty-six  English  judges,  whose  lives  were  in- 
vestigated, came  oiit  of  eighty-five  families,  no 
more  came.  Out  of  seventeen  families  came  two 
each,  and  no  more;  out  of  two  families  came  three 
each,  and  no  more;  and  only  out  of  the  Atkyns 
family  came  as  many  as  four.  Though  twenty  of 
the  Bach  family  were  known  favorably  in  music, 
yet  the  genius  culminated  and  fell  oft'  from  Sebas- 
tian Bach  in  the  sixth  generation.  Though  eight 
or  nine  painters  came  out  of  the  Titian  family, 
they  degenerated  from  the  death  of  the  great  head. 
And  so  of  Tintoretto's  family,  and  Veronese's,  and 
Teniers',  and  Carracci's.  The  Kemble  family  kept 
up  its  remarkable  dramatic  talent  most  wonder- 
fully— at  last  it  fell  off.  Alexander,  Ca3sar,  Na- 
poleon, and  Shakespeare  left  no  successors.  The 
.stock   iu    which   great   genius   or  ability  appears 


HUMAN   NATUKE   FALLS  BACK. 


135 


either  dies  out  of  the  families  of  the  world,  or  the 
genius  dies  out  of  the  stock.  Thus,  the  works  of 
genius  may  live,  yet  the  genius  itself  dies.  The 
following  table  from  Galton  shows  the  percentage 
of  eminent  relations  to  an  eminent  man : 


THKEE  HUNDRED  FAMILIES 
EXAMINED. 


SEPAEATE  GROUPS. 


No.  of  families   each  containing 
more  than  one  eminent  man 


Total  number  of  eminent  men  in 
all  the  families 


300 
977 


Percentages   of   Illustrious   and 
Eminent  Men  having  Emi- 
nent Relations. 


3-> 

15  2 


Father 

Brother 

Son  

Grandfather 

Uncle 

Nephew 

Grandson 

Great  grandfather. 

Great  uncle 

First  cousin 

Great  nephew 

Great  grandson . . . . 


Total  average  percentage  of  emi- 
nent men  having  eminent  rela- 
tions   


11-10  6-10  5-10  7-10 


8-10 


4-10  7-10  2-10 


Galton  admits  this  tendency  or  law  of  human 
nature  to  fall  off  from  an  advance.  He  says: 
"The   table    shows,  in    the    most    unmistakable 


136  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

maimer,  the  enormous  odds  tliat  a  near  kinsman 
has  over  one  that  is  remote,  in  the  chance  of  in- 
heriting abilit}'.  Speaking  roughly,  the  percent- 
ages are  quartered  at  each  successive  remove, 
whether  by  descent  or  collaterally.  Thus,  in  the 
first  degree  of  kinship  the  percentage  is  twenty- 
eight;  in  the  second  about  seven;  and  the  third, 
one  and  one  half.  The  table  testifies  to  another 
fact  in  which  people  do  not  commonly  believe.  It 
shows  that  when  we  regard  the  averages  of  many 
instances  the  frequent  sports  of  nature  in  produc- 
ing prodigies  must  be  regarded  as  apparent,  and 
not  as  real.  Ability,  in  the  long  run,  does  not 
suddenly  start  into  existence,  and  disappear  with 
equal  abruptness;  but  rather,  it  rises  in  a  gradual 
and  regular  curve  out  of  the  ordinary  level  of  fam- 
ily life.  The  statistics  show  that  there  is  a  regular 
average  increase  of  ability  in  the  generations  that 
precede  its  culmination,  and  as  regular  a  decrease 
in  those  that  succeed  it.  In  the  first  case  the 
marriages  have  been  consentient  to  its  production. 
In  the  latter  they  have  been  incapable  of  preserv- 
ing it."        . 

A  further  proof,  as  reported  in  the  papers,  that 
vice  is  more  hereditary  than  genius,  and  of  the 
constantly  gravitating  tendency  of  human  nature 


HEREDITY   OF   EVIL.  137 

to  run  clown  bill,  and,  when  down,  to  stay  there, 
has  been  given  lately  by  Dr.  Harris,  of  New  York: 
"His  attention  was  called,  some  time  since,  to  a 
county  on  the  upper  Hudson  which  showed  a  re- 
markable proportion  of  crime  and  poverty  to  the 
whole  population — four  hundred  and  eighty  of  its 
forty  thousand  inhabitants  being  in  the  almshouse 
— and,  upon  looking  into  the  records  a  little,  he 
found  certain  names  constantly  appearing.  Be- 
coming interested  in  the  subject,  he  concluded  to 
search  the  genealogies  of  these  families,  and,  after 
a  thorough  investigation,  he  discovered  that  from 
a  young  girl  named  'Margaret' — who  was  left 
adrift,  nobody  ever  heard  how,  in  a  village  of  the 
county,  seventy  years  ago,  and,  in  the  absence  of 
an  almshouse,  was  left  to  grow  up  as  best  she 
could — have  descended  two  hundred  criminals. 
As  an  illustration  of  this  remarkable  record,  in 
one  single  generation  of  her  unhappy  line  there 
were  twenty  children;  of  these,  three  died  in  in- 
fancy, and  seventeen  survived  to  maturity.  Of 
the  seventeen,  nine  served  in  the  State  prisons  for 
high  crimes  an  aggregate  term  of  fifty  years,  while 
the  others  were  frequent  inmates  of  jails  and  pen- 
itentiaries and  almshouses!  The  whole  number 
of  this  girl's  descendants,  through  six  generations, 


138  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

is  nine  liuiidred,  and  besides  the  two  hundred  who 
are  on  record  as  criminals,  a  large  number  have 
been  idiots,  imbeciles,  drunkards,  lunatics,  pros- 
titutes, and  paupers."  Dr.  Howe  also  says,  that  of 
three  hundred  idiots  under  his  care,  one  hundred 
and  forty-five  were  the  children  of  drunken  parents. 
Indeed,  "the  evil  that  men  do  lives  after  them." 
And  it  is  also  true  that  we  are  not  sufficient  of 
ourselves  to  help  ourselves. 

If,  then,  the  moral  basis  or  centre  of  conduct 
is  not  sufficient  in  man's  knowledge,  as  taught  by 
Socrates;  or  in  his  prudent  habits,  as  taught  by 
Aristotle;  or  in  his  selected  pleasures,  as  taught 
by  Epicurus;  or  if  it  be  not  in  man  at  all  by  reason 
of  his  general  imperfections, 

II.  IS  THE  MORAL  CENTEE  A  SUPERHUMAN 
ONE  TO  BE  FOUND  IN  THE  ORDER  OF 
UNIVERSAL,  IMPERSONAL  NATURE? 

Zeno,  the  stoic,  held  that  it  is  found  only  there. 
He  taught  that  our  individual  natures  are  parts  of 
universal  nature.  In  this  opinion  he  was  followed 
by  Cleanthes,  his  chief  disciple.  Both  taught  that 
our  chief  good  is  to  live  in  a  manner  corresponding 
to  nature  (vivcre  coiivenioUcr  iiainrai) — and  that 
means  corresponding  to  one's  own  nature,  and  to 


THE   OPINION    OF   THE   STOICS.  139 

universal  nature,  as  Clirysippus  tauglit,  or  to  uni- 
versal nature,  as  Cleauthes  taught — doing  none  of 
those  things  which  the  common  law  of  mankind  is 
in  the  habit  of  forbidding.  This  common  law, 
they  said,  is  identical  with  that  reason  which  per- 
vades everything;  being  the  same  with  Jupiter, 
who  is  the  regulator  and  chief  manager  of  all  ex- 
isting things.'' 

Cleanthes,''  the  immediate  successor  to  Zeno, 
held  that  the  universal  nature  according  to  which 
people  ought  to  live  is  the  common  one,  above  and 
exclusive,  or  rather,  inclusive,  of  all  particular 
nature.  He  excludes  individual  human  nature, 
making  all  consist  in  the  indivisibility  of  uni- 
versal order,  and  teaching  that  the  soul  of  man  is 
material  and  reabsorbed  at  death  by  the  soul  of 
the  universe.  Chrysippus, "  on  the  contrary,  recog- 
nized our  individual  natures,  but  held  that  they  are 
all  parts  or  units  of  universal  nature  as  totality;  in 
other  words,  the  whole  is  the  sum  of  all  its  parts.' 

(a)  Diogenes  Laertius,  Tit.  Zeno. 

(h)   b.  300 -d.  220  B.  C. 

{<■)   200  207  B.  C. 

(d)  "The  notion  so  commonly  .adopted,  that  the  .Stoics  particu- 
larly devoted  themselves  to  the  science  of  law,  and  played  a  great 
part  in  constructing  the  fahric  of  lloman  jurisprudence,  is  much 
mistaken  or  exaggerated.  The  legal  principles  which  can  be 
traced  to  their  moral  maxims  are  but  few.     This  remark  is  op- 


140  THE   UNITY   OF    LAW. 

But  what  do  we  mean  by  universal  nature  or 
universal  reason?  The  word  universal  is  derived 
from  the  Latin  words  uuum  versus  alia,  and  sig- 
nifies one  turned  or  extended  into  other  or  muny. 
Hence,  to  call  nature  universal  implies  that  one 
all-including  nature  turns  or  extends  itself  to  many 
or  divers  natures  below  or  within  it.  Universal 
reason  is  one  all-includiug  reason  extending  itself 
to  other  or  many  subordinate  minds.  Just  so  far 
as  human  reason  conforms  to  universal  reason  it 
is  governed  by  a  reason  more  general  than  its  own : 
in  other  words,  by  a  superhuman  reason.  But 
right  and  wrong  are  ever  unchanging",  and  can  not 
therefore  have  their  basis  or  centre  in  ever-chang- 
ing  nature,   or   in   an   order   that   gradually   but 

posed  to  the  common  opinion  of  the  commentators  on  Roman  Law, 
which  the  few  and  trifling  coincidences  which  Heineccius  dis- 
covers between  the  stoic  and  the  legal  principles,  are  surely  not 
sufficient  to  justify:"  6  Merivale's  Rome,  194,  and  note. 

This  notion  of  the  impersonal  Order  of  the  Universe,  instead  of 
a  Personal  Government  of  a  Supreme  Being,  led,  of  course,  to 
fatalism,  the  inevitableness  and  ecpiality  of  all  evil,  and  the  abso- 
lute irresi)()nsibility  of  vicious  conduct.  Tlie  inevitahlencss  of 
evil  made  all  e(pial  in  guilt.  Treljatius  taught  tliat  to  steal  one 
grain  of  corn  was  equal  in  guilt  to  that  of  stealing  the  whole 
lump;  and  he  who  touclied  tlie  ear  of  a  man  was  liable  to  as  great 
damages  as  he  wlio  injured  the  whole  body.  With  wrong  con- 
ceptions of  Supernatural  Personality,  they  had  wrong  notions  of 
the  evil  conduct  violative  of  law.  Indeed^  in  the  fatalism  of  the 
Htoics  tliere  was  ncitlior  sin  uor  rcsiJonsilMlity. 


NATURE  CHANGES.  141 

ceaselessly  changes.  That  which  clianges  is  in- 
complete; and  that  Avliich  is  incomplete  is  im- 
perfect; and  the  imperfect  can  not  originate  and 
authenticate  anything  essentially  perfect,  like  the 
law  of  moral  rightness.  Imperfect  man  can  not 
be  the  source  of  his  own  perfection.  The  centre 
of  moral  force  must  be  in  the  perfection  of  intel- 
ligence and  will,  and  this  ever-changing  nature  is 
not.     Evolution  is  change. 

But  if  the  moral  basis  or  centre  of  man's  con- 
duct is  not  in  imperfect  man'  himself  because  of 
his  imperfections,  can  it  be  in  the  order  of  uni- 
versal nature,  of  which  imperfect  man  is  the  most 
perfect  unit?  In  other  words,  as  the  strength  of 
the  chain  can  not  transcend  that  of  its  weakest 
link,  so  the  perfection  of  nature  in  its  totality  can 
not  transcend  the  imperfections  of  man,  its  most 
perfect  part.  Therefore,  as  we  shall  show  in  the 
next  lecture,  the  moral  basis  must  be  in  super- 
nature,  where,  in  the  infinitude  of  perfection,  no 
imperfection  can  come.  The  unity  of  supernature 
is  absolute,  and  here  is  the  fons  et  origo  of  all 
things. 


LECTURE  II.— Continued. 
THE  THIRD  CORKELATION. 

The  PHiLOSorHiCAL  Basis  of  Moealitt  in  Natuke,  whetheb  PersonaIi 

OB  IMPEESOJJAI,  WAS  DISPLACED,  AND  A  SUPERNATURAL  OR  MONOTHE- 
ISTIC Basis  in  Judaism  and  Christianity  was  Corbelativelt  Sub- 
stituted.» 

1.    THE  PHILOSOPHICAL  BASIS   OF   MOEALITY  TO  BE  DISPLACED. 

An  examination  of  the  table  of  names  in  the  last 
lecture  will  show  that  at  the  coming  of  Christ 
philosophy  had  been  dead,  even  in  Greece,  foi-  over 
two  hundred  years,  and  was  never  a  native  or  a 


(i)  Fk;.  G. 


CupasT. 


Muiulii}  baBedoii  Worslii) 


lu  Superuaturu: 

a,  Judaism. 

b.  Cbrii>tiauit.v. 


4.  Marriage  Sacramitilal 


The    llulj   Roman    V, 
plru. 


Moralily  based  ou  Specula- 

Maxiiuuni  of  Philosopliy — 
Miuimuut  uf  Morality. 

Miirriage,  Secular. 

Sciieca  a  Moralist 

B.  C.T-fif)  A.  D. 

PhiloBophers    baoiKlicd 

by  Veapasiau 70-79 

lOpiorotus 

Moralist 'Ji 

I'liilosophers    banished 

liv  Doniiliaii 91 

M.  Aurelius 

Moralist iai-180 

ilofihius 4;(-526 

Schools   ol    I'hilusophy 

at  Atlieiis  ol.ised  by 

onleror.liislinli.M..  526 
Thu  Schooliiieii  couvert 

Philosophy      into 

Theology    I'rom 

AD.  740-13*7 

'I'lIK    I'IMCSENT 

TiMi:. 


SUPERNATURAL   MORAL   BASIS.  143 

power  in  Borne.  As  a  literary  fasliion,  a  lew  wore 
the  robes  of  the  philosophers,  and  aspired  to  the 
distiuctiou  of  their  wisdom.  Kome  preferred  to 
be  great  among  the  Nations  rather  than  to  be  great 
in  the  Schools.  If  it  was  thought  in  Greece,  it  was 
will  at  Rome.  The  theistic  notions  of  the  ancient 
philosophers  were  neither  clear  nor  consistent. 
The  idea  of  one  god  was  an  Asiatic  conception. 

As  the  idea  of  the  moral  basis  in  nature,  whether 
a  personal  human  nature  as  taught  by  Socrates, 
the  moralist,  or  an  impersonal  superhuman  nature 
as  taught  by  Zeno,  the  stoic,  gave  way,  as  we  saw 
in  the  last  lecture,  it  was  correlatively  and  inversely 
substituted  by  the  idea  of  a  morality  based  upon 
the  will  of  a  Supernatural  Person. 

At  the  coming  of  Csesar  the  experiment  of  look- 
ing for  man's  moral  sufficiency  in  man  himself, 
whether  in  his  laws  and  institutions,  or  in  his 
philosophies,  or  in  the  order  of  mere  impersonal 
nature  around  man,  had  been  on  trial  for  five  hun- 
dred years,  and  had  signally  failed.  The  basis 
must  be  in  supernature  or  nowhere.  Exactly  as 
man's  religious  force  declined  his  immoral  force 
inversely  increased.  Humanity  had  proved  insuf- 
ficient for  humanity.  Impersonal  nature  had  not 
moralized   personal  nature.     A  Jew  of  Nazareth 


1J:J:  THE   UNITY   OF    LAW. 

came  to  teach  new  truths  to  the  workl,  of  man's 
moral  responsibility  to  a  personal  Power  above 
Nature.  Society  took  a  new  departure.  As  Chris- 
tianity, with  significance  in  a  supernatural  order 
and  Person,  increased,  human  dependence,  whether 
in  law,  philosophy,  or  the  polity  of  governments, 
inversely  decreased.  Past  experience  had  shown, 
by  the  inexorable  law  of  correlation,  that  the  moral 
centre  was  not  in  human  nature  but  in  super- 
nature;  where,  in  the  iufinitude  of  perfection, 
no  imperfection  could  come.  It  is  admitted  that 
nothing  is  sufficient  in  itself.  Evolution  is  impossi- 
ble without  involution.  Nature  is  the  Phenomena 
or  finite  side  of  things,  and  supernature  the 
Noumenon  or  infinite  side.  If  it  can  be  proved 
that  Nature  is  all,  then  nature  is  its  own  lawgiver, 
but  not  otherwise. 

2.    THE   KELIGIOUS   BASIS  TO  BE  COERELA.TIVELY   SUBSTITUTED 
FOR  THE  PHILOSOPHICAL. 

"When  Monotheistic  Christianity  transferred  the 
moral  centre  altogether  out  of  the  sphere  of  nature, 
cither  human  or  superhuman,  it  placed  it  in  the 
universal  parentage  and  authority  of  supernature. 
For  the  philosophy  of  the  philosophers  came  the 
theology  of  the  school-men.  Instead  of  heroic 
man  becoming  a  god,  the  infinite  God  became  in- 


ANSELM   AND   ABELARD.  145 

cainate  in  man.  The  moral  strength  and  hope  of 
of  man  was  no  longer  his  own  wisdom,  but  the 
infinite  Generator  worked  in  man  to  will  and  to 
do  His  good  pleasure.  Men  were  told  that,  if  they 
lacked  wisdom,  to  seek  it  from  above  themselves, 
and  it  would  be  given.  The  ancients,  seeking  the 
moral  centre  in  man  and  nature,  said  that  true 
philosophy  was  religion;  but  Christian  theolo- 
gians, as  represented  by  Duns  Scotus  and  the 
school-men,  seeking  the  moral  centre  in  super- 
nature,  held  that  true  religion  was  philosophy. 
Auselm  said  that  he  did  not  seek  to  know  that  he 
might  believe,  but  he  believed  that  he  might 
know.^  Abelard  said  that  he  sought  to  know  that 
he  might  believe.     Both  were  right. 

Knowledge  without  worship  leads  to  doubt. 
Worship  with  knowledge  leads  to  faith.  At  the 
coming  of  Caesar  the  maximum  of  philosophy  coin- 
cided with  the  minimum  of  religion  and  morality; 
and  this  because,  with  many  curious  and  some  wise 
thoughts  (even  such  as  the  world  has  always  since 
valued),  the  moral  judgment  became  confused. 
The  philosophers  took  from  the  people  their  old 
beliefs,  and  left  them  nothing  in  their  place,  or 

(a)  Non  qiKcro  Intellhjere  itt  crednm,  sed  credo  nt  IntcIUfjmn. 
Al)elartrs  luottu  was  I'atioiialistic:  Non  credviidum  nisi  2^vias  in- 
tdhctuni. 


146  THE   UNITY    OF   LAW. 

each  one  with  his  own  new  view;  and  left  so  many 
and  various  opinions  that  no  one  knew  what  to 
accept,  and  so  accepted  nothing.  Speculation 
was  no  substitute  for  worship.  The  guide  of  life 
is  the  enlightened  conscience.  Optimism  comes 
from  faith  and  hope;  Pessimism  from  skepticism 
and  despair. 

Socrates,  like  Chillion,  one  of  the  seven  wise 
men,  said  "know  thyself,  and  do  right;  but  in 
whom  does  merely  right  knowledge  lead  to  right 
living?"  "Omniscience  is  not  the  condition  of 
virtue."  Aristotle  said  learn  virtue  by  practice; 
but  how  and  where  best  to  begin  but  in  religions 
feeling  and  with  religious  responsibility?  Zeno, 
the  stoic,  said  assert  3'ourself  and  be  strong;  but 
"who  is  sufficient  for  these  things?"  Epicurus 
said,  indulge  yourself  and  be  indifferent;  but  is 
this  wise?  With  one,  virtue  was  culture;  with 
another,  pleasure;  and  another,  will-power. 

Socrates  sought  moral  principles;  Plato,  how 
men  might  live  like  gods;  Aristotle,  practical 
methods;  Zeno,  the  cultivation  of  the  will.  Soc- 
rates separated  morality  from  mythological  re- 
ligion; Aristotle  separated  rules  from  principles; 
and  Zeno  separated  the  man  from  the  State. 
From  the  iirst  wo  derive  a  valuable  moral  wisdom; 


PHILOSOrHICAL   OPINIONS.  147 

from  the  second,  certain  moral  speculations; 
from  the  third,  prudent  moral  efforts;  from  the 
fourth,  a  proud  moral  severity.  Socrates  would 
have  men  learned;  Epicurus,  indifferent;  Aris- 
totle, practical;  and  Zeno,  enduring.  One  offered 
as  a  motive  the  rewards  of  virtue;  another  the 
pleasures  of  virtue;  and  another  the  rightness  of 
virtue.  Socrates  made  philosophers;  Aristotle, 
logicians;  Zeno,  heroes;  and  Epicurus,  graceful 
idlers. 

Notice  that  stoicism,  as  compared  with  religion, 
was  a  mere  morality,  impossible  to  be  known  to 
any  but  the  few,  and  even  by  them  it  was  soon 
corrupted;  while  religion,  including  both  Judaism 
and  Christianity,  certainly  not  less  a  morality,  had 
all  the  propagaud  vigor  of  a  popular  and  aggres- 
sive religious  faith.  The  spirit  of  Christianity  was 
intensely  missionary,  and  its  heroes  were  martyrs. 

Stoicism  made  self-assertive  philosophers  of  the 
few  who  had  time  to  meditate.  Religion  said:  "I 
can  do  all  things  through  Him  who  strengtheneth 
me."  Stoicism:  "I  must  do  all,  or  nothing,  by 
myself."  In  one  was  despair  and  self-destruction; 
in  the  other  both  humility  and  hope. 

These  two  elements  came  together  in  parallel, 
if  not  commingled  streams,  at  Home,  in  the  age  of 


148  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Seneca  the  Eoman,  and  Paul  of  Asia.  One  was 
a  teacher  to  an  Emperor,  tlie  brother  of  a  pro- 
consul, and  a  notability  in  society;  the  other,  a 
foreigner — a  prisoner — the  teacher  of  an  unpopu- 
lar faith.  Why  does  one  immediately  fail,  and  the 
other  almost  as  immediately  succeed?  Before  the 
close  of  the  second  century  from  their  contem- 
porary presence  in  Home,  the  stoical  wisdom  of 
Seneca,  even  while  Marcus  Aurelius,  its  imperial 
teacher,  is  on  his  throne,  goes  down  in  fruitless- 
ness;  and  the  other,  under  the  impulsion  of  the 
law  of  "survival  of  the  fittest,"  moves  on  like  a 
young  giant,  mounts  the  throne  of  the  Caesars, 
and  spreads  abroad  into  all  lands  "the  light  of 
the  world." 

Christianity  thought  first  of  a  personal  God, 
and  then  of  a  personal  man.  Stoicism  thought 
first  of  a  personal  man,  and  then  of  an  impersonal 
God.  The  one  lield  to  a  personal  immortality  and 
accountability;  the  other  to  an  impersonal  im- 
mortality and  no  accountability.  One  was  na- 
tional, the  other  universal — go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  every  creature. 
One  was  propagand,  the  other  not.  Stoicism  was 
inert,  and  endured;  Christianity  had  tremendous 
activity,  and  triumphed.     Socrates    and    Seneca 


FAITH,  149 

might  individually  die  for  their  philosophy,  but 
millions  died  for  their  religion.  Opinion  was 
distinguished  by  the  self-destruction  of  the  sui- 
cide; but  faith  was  glorified  by  the  sacrifice  of  the 
martyr.  One  perished,  though  nourished  by  the 
favor  of  some  few  who  knew  it;  the  other  survived, 
though  persecuted  by  all  who  did  not  know  it. 

The  strongest  roots  of  morality  are  in  the  sacred 
sanctions  of  religion.  We  must  love  and  rever- 
ence that  which  we  obey  voluntarily.  In  the  an- 
cient religions,  such  as  they  were,  there  was  the 
supposed  authority  of  a  supernal  will  and  wisdom 
in  moral  rules  and  religious  appointments.  The 
authority  was  above  man.  But  in  advancing  cul- 
ture the  individual  judgment  became  confused  in 
a  multitude  of  systems,  and  uncertain  as  to  what 
authority  he  owed  obedience,  man  insensibly 
ceased  allegiance,  more  or  less,  to  all.  He  needed 
something  to  decide  his  mind  and  fasten  it  to 
mental  and  moral  truth  upon  wdiich  to  build  up 
his  life.  For  the  want  of  anything  definite,  his 
moral  forces  ran  to  waste,  and  his  mcwal  life  col- 
lapsed. This  shows,  that  as  the  ancient  religions, 
though  superstitious,  whose  fancies  Avere  ingrained 
in  common  thought  and  feeling,  declined,  ancient 
morals    declined.     The    maximum  of   philosophy 


150  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

was  tlie  minimum  of  religion,  and  the  minimum 
of  religion  was  the  maximum  of  immorality.  The 
various  cosmological  theories  as  to  whether  every- 
thing came  from  the  water,  the  air,  or  fire,  at  most 
entertained  the  speculations  of  those  who  had  the 
leisure  to  think  upon  such  matters;  but  when  re- 
ligious movements  had  so  far  died  out  in  the  con- 
fusion of  speculative  thought  that  men  worshipped 
nothing,  then  came  practical  results.  There  was 
no  moral  bond  on  man,  for  there  was  no  moral 
authority  above  man.  Time  and  human  interests 
were  all.      (See  note,  next  page.) 

The  period  of  social  decline  during  the  time  of 
the  philosophers,  and  after  the  general  decay  of  all 
religion,  illustrates  the  fallacy  of  that  as  well  as  of 
this  age,  that  mere  "  knowledge  is  power."  The 
power  man  most  needs  comes  from  the  moral  side 
of  his  nature,  not  its  intellectual.  There  is  no 
connection  between  right  and  wrong  and  the  mul- 
tiplication-table. Men  never  do  right  because 
they  know  the  calculus.  Opinion  does  not  gener- 
ally control  action  until  it  has  warmth  and  moral 
energy.  Conduct  comes  out  of  conscience  and  the 
emotions,  rather  than  the  mental  persuasions. 
Again,  I  beg  to  say  that  this  dependence  upon 
mere  intellectual  culture  is,  in  the  woi'ds  of  Spen- 


MODERN   CIVILIZATION. 


151 


cer,  "the  superstition  of  the  age."  It  has  be- 
come a  proverb,  that  "  men  know  the  right,  yet 
the  wroug  pursue."  Every  non-theistic  direction 
of  society  is  fatally  wrong.  True  social  progress 
is  many-sided;  but,  whatever  else  may  be  lacking, 
the  experiment  of  modern  civilization,  judging  the 


Note. — We  shall  be  better  able  to  see  which  would  probably 
be  the  wisest  civilizer  when  we  consider  the  special  character- 
istics of — 


PHILOSOPHY. 

RELIGION. 

Epicureanism. 

Stoicism. 

Christianity. 

Human  Nature  Phase. 

Human  Spirit  Phase. 

Divine  Spirit  Phase. 

Expedient  Morality. 

Political  Morality. 

Personal  Morality. 

ComiKiuumnbip. 

Self. 

Fraternity. 

Selt-lndulgence. 

Self-Discipline. 

Self-Uevotion. 

Pleasure  a  Virtue. 

"Will  a  Virtue. 

Conscience  a  Virtue. 

Suffering  Shunned. 

Suffering  Defied. 

Suffering  Sanctified. 

Self- Seeking. 

Self-Poised. 

Self-Sacrificed. 

Kecreation. 

Reserve. 

Religion. 

Mistresses. 

Concubines. 

Wives. 

A  Pleased  Man. 

A  Proud  Man. 

A  Pious  Man. 

Death  Ignored. 

Death  Despised. 

Death  Conquered. 

Indiflerence. 

Composure. 

Hope. 

Inclination. 

Will. 

Faith. 

Humor. 

Contempt. 

Charity. 

Politeness. 

Courage. 

Exultation. 

Pleasure. 

Dignity. 

Salvation. 

Indolence. 

War. 

Good  Works. 

Weakness. 

Rigidity. 

Beneficence. 

Smiles. 

Frowns. 

Cheerfulness. 

Sentiments. 

Thought. 

Convictions. 

Submission. 

Resolution. 

Reformation. 

Catullus. 

Cato. 

Christ. 

The  Individual. 

The  Nation. 

The  World. 

Respectability. 

Honor. 

Conscience. 

Legal  License. 

Legal  Rules. 

Legal  Principles. 

Carelessness. 

Apathy. 

Sympathy. 

Its  one  idea  of  good. 

Its  one  idea  of  good. 

All  ideas  of  good. 

152  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

future  by  the  past,  will  most  certainly  break  down 
if  anything"  be  lacking  on  its  religions  side. 
Progress  absorbs  its  strongest  aliment,  and  re- 
ceives its  highest  inspiration,  not  from  any  one  sj's- 
tem  of  opinions,  but  from  religion.  Early  stoicism 
in  Rome  shows  the  insufficiency  of  mere  iutellect- 
nalism.  Men  thhih  one  way  and  act  another.  Even 
Seneca,  the  stoic  philosopher,  and  Seneca,  the 
sycophant  of  Nero,  are  two  different  men.  So  are 
Marcus  Aurelius  the  stoic  and  Marcus  Anrelius  the 
emperor.  It  would  be  too  tedious  to  describe  fully 
the  fearful  demoralization  of  Kome,  saddest  of  all 
during  the  final  days  of  philosophy.  It  was  spec- 
ulative wisdom  without  worship,  and  so  failed  to 
preserve  society.  Man  needs  religious  feeling  as 
Avell  as  moral  thought.  The  line  of  this  last  ended 
in  both  immorality  and  despotism. 

And  now,  standing  at  the  grave  of  the  republic 
and  the  cradle  of  the  Roman  empire,  let  us  look 
back  to  the  founding  of  Rome,  and  around,  and 
let  us  see  what  has  been  gained  by  seven  hundred 
years  of  Patrician  and  Plebeian  Avars,  bloodshed, 
and  suffering.  The  philosophers  have  come  and 
spoken,  and  departed.  The  temples  of  the  gods 
have  been  built  and  deserted,  millions  of  patriots 
have  laid  down  their  lives  for  human  freedom — the 


NON-RELIGIOUS  CIVILIZATION.  153 

living  son  ceases  to  worship  his  dead  father;  the 
hymns  to  the  Penates  are  silent;  the  sacred  fire 
burns  no  longer  upon  the  household  altar;  the 
satirist  sneers  at  the  devotee,  and,  in  the  presence 
of  the  despotic  Caesar,  man  stands  without  faith 
and  without  freedom.  Gathering  into  himself  all 
power,  this  great  conqueror  did  not  pretend  to  rest 
his  dominion  on  the  authority  of  the  gods,  like  the 
sacerdotal  kings;  nor  to  represent  the  popular  will, 
like  the  tribunes,  or  even  to  be  bound  to  regard 
the  interests  of  his  conquered  millions.  No  sooner 
had  the  Eoman  people  fully  gained  their  freedom 
than  they  lost  it.  What  a  conclusion  to  these  long 
lines  of  civilizing  movements!  Liberty,  with  man- 
acles on  her  hands,  shackles  on  her  feet,  and  the 
knife  of  the  despotic  butcher  at  her  throat;  the 
philosophers  a  set  of  trifiers;  the  priests  a  horde 
of  imposters;  woman  a  degraded  minion!  This  is 
but  a  sketch  of  a  godless  civilization  bursting  away 
from  the  ancient  religions,  poor  as  they  were. 

From  this  the  law  of  ancient  civilization  would 
seem  to  be  that  the  maximum  of  philosophy,  as 
we  have  said,  coincided  with  the  minimum  of 
morality.  31enial  and  moral  ivisdom  loitliout  relig- 
ious ivorsMp  did  not  ineserve  civilization.  For  one 
thousand  years,  from  the  Law  of  the  XII  Tables 


154  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

to  Justinian,  a  mere  intellectual  morality,  freed 
from  religion  and  announced  in  the  courts,  con- 
stituting the  great  Corpus  Juris  Civilis,  had  chance 
in  controling  civilization  and  failed.  The  min- 
imum of  religion  coincided  with  the  maximum  of 
despotism.  The  lines  of  merely  political  govern- 
ment, minus  religion,  did  not  lead  to  liberty;  in  a 
word,  that  all  the  lines  of  Pagan  faith,  force,  and 
philosophy,  as  they  led  away  from  religious  wor- 
ship, led  alike  to  slavery.  As  secular  influences 
increased,  the  sacred  correlatively  decreased;  and 
with  this  decrease  the  best  side  of  civilization 
broke  down.  As  the  popular  religious  worship 
faded,  force  and  philosophy  were  left  without  a 
god,  and  culminated  in  the  destruction  of  society. 
"Whence  was  the  remedy  to  come  ?  For  society  to 
progress,  it  needed  to  be  based  on  the  three  great 
principles  of  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity. 
Must  it  vainly  struggle  for  these  in  the  future  as 
in  the  past? 


LECTURE  II.— Continued. 
THE  FOURTH  CORRELATION. 

The  Political  Basis  of  Morality  in  the  Meke  Law  of  the  State 
culminating  in  the  empire,  was  displaced,  and  the  monotheistic 
Basis,  as  taught  by  Jud^usm  and  Chkistianity,  was  Coerelatively 
Substituted.     (See  Figure  7.) 

Caesar  dies.  The  Paf^an  religions  are  without 
moral  iufluence.  Philosophy  has  vainly  said  all  it 
liad  to  say,  and  promises  no  more.  We  have  been 
told  that  science  rejects  all  outside  builders,  un- 


FiG.  7. 
Cesar. 


The  basis  of  morality 
and  law  began  ti 
change  from  the 
will  of  the  State  t( 
the  will  of  the  One 
God. 

Constantine. 

Charlemagne. 

Other  Christian  Rul- 
ers. 

Priests  became  Civil- 
ians. 


Kings  crowned  hy 
Popes. 


iiSfik^E 


Christ. 

Marriage  sacred. 

Persecutions. 

The  Holy  Empire. 

924  to  1530  there  were 
172  Lord  Chancel- 
lors. 123  were 
Bishops. 

Christianity  founded 
nearly  all  the  great 
schools  and  colleges 
of  Europe. 

1000  to  15U0. 

Crusades. 

SchoIa.«ticjsm. 

Reformation. 
1.517. 

Laws  and  most  emi- 
nent men  were 
Christian. 


Chki.stianity. 
Ca?saris;Ti  represents  the  State;  and  Christianity,  Monotheism. 


156  THE  UNITY   OF  LAW. 

foldiug  from  witliin  whatever  it  essentially  is. 
Morality  based  on  State  command  has  had  its  full 
unfolding.  Its  evolution  has  run  through  five 
hundred  years — increased,  culminated,  and  failed. 
It  became  evident  in  Csesar  that  State-built  mor- 
ality was  not  sufficient  for  that  harmony  which 
is  civilization.  What  now?  Mankind  must  be 
helped.  The  evolution  of  principles  within  must 
be  joined  to  the  involution  of  correlative  princi- 
ples from  without. 

Christ  is  born.  Morality,  reversing  its  move- 
ment, returns  slowly  from  a  political  to  a  theistic 
basis. '^  Man  is  taught  that  he  is  responsible  to  an 
Infinite  Being:  to  the  High  and  Holy  One  that  in- 
habited eternity,  of  too  pure  eyes  than  to  behold 
iniquity,  and  one  who  Avill  by  no  means  clear  the 
guilty,  all-knowing  and  almighty.  To  the  will  of 
such  a  Being,  human  conduct  was  referred  by  the 
new  religion.  The  authority  was  not  the  will  of 
the  State,  nor  the  darkened  wisdom  of  man,  nor 
his  impassioned  pleasures,  nor  his  irregular  habits, 
nor  the  blind  order  of  impersonal  nature,  but  the 
commands  of  the  Universal  Father. 

At  the  founding  of  Rome,  as  we  have  said  be- 


{ii)  As  to  tlio  moral  comlition  of  Home  at  this  time,  see  Lecky, 
K.  M.  177;  U  Meri vale's  Ivomc,  VM  202. 


EELIGIOUS  MORALITY.  157 

fore,  man's  moral  aud  political  responsibility  was 
supposed  to  be  to  the  will  of  the  ancestral  gods. 
During  the  republic  it  was  held  to  be  in  the  aggre- 
gated will  of  all  men,  called  the  State.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  the  empire  it  was  restricted  to  the 
irresponsible  will  of  the  one  man,  Ciesar.  Moral 
chaos  came.  At  the  coming  of  (;hrist,  all  moral 
responsibility,  whether  personal  or  political,  was 
held  to  relate  to  the  will  of  the  Jew's  one  super- 
natural Jehovah,  and  to  the  Christian's  one  Re- 
deemer, Christ. 

It  is  not  claimed  that  Judaism  or  Christianity 
makes  moral  law,  any  more  than  that  either  made 
gravitation.  All  that  either  or  both  could  do  was, 
and  is,  to  so  awaken  and  direct  thought,  so  sol- 
emnize and  consecrate  the  feelings,  and  so  crys- 
tallize maxims  as  to  unveil  the  law  already  and  ever 
existing.  That  Christianity,  as  a  successor  to 
Judaism,  did  vitally  affect  the  law,  we  propose  to 
show.  As  the  religious  factors  increased,  the  non- 
religious  factors  correlatively  decreased.  Ex  ne- 
cessitate, if  our  argument  be  valid,  religious  moral- 
ity must  resume  its  control  of  human  conduct,  or 
society  must  perish.  Mere  intellectual  morality 
or  expediency-law  has  ever  proved  insufficient. 
Prohibitory   laws    do   not  prevent   wrong.     Man 


158  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

hopes  to  escape  or  defy  the  power  of  liis  fellow- 
man.  At  best,  lie  heeds  but  partially  even  a  su- 
pernatural power,  which  he  can  not  escape  or  defy. 
Man's  best  life  comes  from  being  helped  to  do  right 
from  principles  within,  not  from  prohibitory  laws 
that  punish  him  for  doing  wrong.  And  so  is  man 
that  even  religious  morality  is  not  universal.  But 
again  and  ever  we  repeat,  intellectual  knowledge  is 
not  moral  power.  Good  laws  indicate  evil  times. 
"We  do  not  have  bad  morals  that  we  may  have  good 
laws;  but  even  with  good  laws  we  have  bad  morals. 
Let  us  distinguish  Theism  and  Religion,  which 
we  must  consider,  from  Theology  and  Creeds, 
which  we  are  not  to  consider.  "There  are  many 
theologies,  and  but  one  religion."''  Man,  in  his 
Aveakuess  below,  ever  reaches  up  to  superhuman 
power  above.  Dependence  is  the  one  fact  of  the 
universe.  Man  turns  to  the  Infinite,  and  this  is 
Religion.  Though  like  the  blind,  groping  his  un- 
defined way,  man  may  not  see  the  full  light,  yet  he 
knows  its  life-giving  presence  by  the  warmth  of 
its  beams.  This  absolute  religion  has  had  its 
interpreters  in  all  ages  of  the  Avorld;  men  who, 
with  different  degrees  of  mental  illumination,  have 
attempted  to  give  expression  to  the  great  religious 


ABSOLUTE   RELIGION.  159 

thought  of  tlie  universe;  prophets,  apostles,  and 
martyrs,  philosophers  and  poets." 

As  this  religious  bias  is  in  each,  and  in  all,  each 
man  must  reverence  the  reverence  of  every  other, 
whether  he  be  Pagan,  Jew,  Christian,  Mahom- 
medan,  or  Buddhist.  Religion  is  on  man's  spir- 
itual side,  and  pertains  to  worship;  theology  is  on 
his  intellectual  side,  and  pertains  to  opinion;  mor- 
ality is  on  his  ethical  side,  and  pertains  to  con- 
duct. Morality  is  religion  in  practice;  religion  is 
morality  in  principle.  Morality  is  religion  toward 
man;  religion  is  morality  toward  all  above  man; 
these  act  and  re-act  upon  each  other. 

We  all  feel  sure  that  we  live,  move,  and  have 
our  being  in  some  superhuman,  if  not  super- 
natural, and  eternal  power.  This  feeling  has 
done  a  marvelous  work  in  civilization,  as  one  of 
its  mightiest  forces.  It  has  correlated,  or  come 
and  gone  like  every  other  force,  in  evolving  the 
unequal  but  progressive  result.  Each  for  himself 
may  name  the  supremacy  which  we  all  thus  admit. 
It  is  sufficient  to  realize  that  man  is  not  at  the  top. 
We  are  controled.  The  Inevitable  is  our  master. 
Everything  controls  each  thing,  and  each  thing 
controls  everything,  or  the  whole  each  part,  and 

(a)  See  Upham,  Absolute  Religion,  p.  12. 


160  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

each  part  the  whole.  The  question  is  not  whether 
this  or  that  religion  is  true,  but  Avhether  religion 
of  some  sort,  entirely  apart  from  its  dogmas,  is 
an  universal  factor  in  the  movements  of  civiliza- 
tion. Prof.  Tyndal  says:  "The  religious  feeling 
is  as  much  a  verity  as  any  other  part  of  human 
consciousness,"''  and  speaks  of  "the  immovable 
basis  of  the  religious  sentiment  in  the  emotional 
nature  of  man."  He  says,  "  there  are  such  things 
ivoven  into  the  texture  of  inmi  as  the  feeling  of  awe, 
reverence,  and  wonder."  He  also  says:  "Mr. 
Buckle  sought  to  detach  intellectual  achievement 
from  moral  force.  He  gravely  erred;  for  without 
moral  force  to  whip  it  into  action  the  achieve- 
ments of  the  intellect  would  be  poor  indeed."^ 
It  is  not  this  religion  or  that — Jewish  or  Chris- 
tian, Buddhistic  or  Mohammedan — but  it  is  re- 
ligion in  its  place  in  society,  and  as  a  fact 
in  history,  and  as  a  part  of  our  psychological 
texture,  that  we  are  compelled  to  consider.  It 
is  as  inseparable  from  ourselves  and  civilization 
as  heat  is  from  light.  Wliether  Moses,  Buddha, 
Christ,  or  Mohammed  propose  it,  religion  is  a 
characteristic  of  man,  and  is  identified  with  his 

ill)  I'oj).  Sd.,  J.an.,  187!>. 
(0)  lielfast  Address. 


CIVILIZATIONS  DIFFER.  161 

moral  life;  and,  iu  one  way  or  another,  that  moral 
life  is  a  part  of  bis  recognized  laws.  In  moral 
movements  correlation  is  exposed  to  religion  as 
well  as  everything  else.  In  the  Roman  Republic 
it  correlated  with  or  was  absorbed  in  the  political 
force;  and  in  Greece  it  gave  place  to  the  specu- 
lative or  philosophical  force.  Different  civiliza- 
tions have  different  views  of  man.  The  Indian 
holds  that  the  individual  Avas  a  mere  breath  to  be 
reabsorbed;  the  Greek,  that  man  was  all  right  in 
himself,  and  only  needed  development;  the  Chris- 
tian, that  in  some  way  he  has  become  all  wrong, 
and  needs  regeneration.  These  different  psychol- 
ogies aim  at  far  different  ends.  The  Buddhist 
expects  to  be  united  with  the  divine,  by  losing  his 
individuality  and  being  re-absorbed  into  the  di- 
vine. The  Christian  hopes  to  be  re-united  to  the 
divine,  and  retain  his  individuality.  The  Greek 
expects  to  develop  the  nature  he  has;  the  Chris- 
tian, the  new  nature  of  the  Spirit.  The  Buddhist 
expects  to  be  obliterated,  and  gain  annihilation; 
the  Christian,  to  efface  a  sinful  nature,  and  gain 
another  with  personal  immortality.  The  Buddhist 
expects  to  be  immortal  in  an  impersonal  Nothing- 
ness; the  Greek  to  be  immortal  in  himself  as  he 
is  developed  by  culture;  and  the  Christian,  to  be 


162  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

personally  immortal  in  the  Christ  who  redeems 
and  purifies  him.  In  China,  the  worship  is  of 
dead  ancestors,  rather  than  of  any  Supreme  God. 
As  to  morality,  they  hold  actions  to  be  tuise  or 
nnivise,  rather  than  right  or  wrong,  guilty  or  inno- 
cent. The  act  brings  with  it  no  moral  responsi- 
bility. The  State  aims  to  make  people  wise  by 
punishing  for  want  of  wisdom. 

THE  RELIGIOUS  BASIS  OF  MORALITY  TO 
BE  CORRELATIVELY  SUBSTITUTED  FOR 
THE  DISPLACEMENT  OF  THE  POLITICAL 
BASIS. 

:.   CHRISTIANITY  RECONSTRUCTS  CIVILIZATION. 

As  a  fact  in  histor}^  Christ  came,  and  all  human 
things  took  a  new  departure.  The  religious  life 
was  revived.  Theism  was  again  to  be  recognized 
in  human  governments. 

While  secular  force  increased  and  centralized  in 
the  emperor,  a  mightier  parallel  was  by  its  side. 
The  old  secular  force  and  the  new  religious  faith 
went  on  together — the  State  and  the  Church — co- 
workers in  social  progress.  We  must  remember 
that  when  the  ancient  State  was  added  to  the  fam- 
ily, it  did  not  supplant  it  or  its  laws;  and  when 
the  Church  was  added  to  both,  it  supplemented 
what  was  good  in  each,  and  corrected,  as  far  as  it 


GROWTH   OF   CHRISTIANITY.  163 

was  i3ermitted,  Avliat  it  tlionglit  was  inconipatible 
with  social  atlvancement. 

It  is  needless  to  recount  the  trials  of  Christian- 
ity for  the  first  three  hundred  years  of  its  exist- 
ence. Its  ten  persecutions,  and  its  innumerable 
martyrdoms,  are  familiar  history  to  all.  By  Con- 
stantine  it  acquired  political  protection.  At  the 
fall  of  the  civil  Koman  empire  began  a  train  of 
events  which  resulted,  through  the  conquests  of 
Charlemagne,  in  the  more  enduring  and  more  ex- 
tended dominion  of  the  Holy  Boman  Empire. 
From  Constantine  to  Charlemagne  it  more  and 
more  affected  political  institutions,  sitting  on 
thrones,  organizing  courts,  connecting  conscience 
with  law,  and  correlating  philosophy  into  theism. 
It  established  itself,  in  its  first  movements,  by  its 
theological  creed,  its  moral  maxims,  its  sacra- 
mental worship,  and  the  devoted  lives  of  its  disci- 
ples. The  ancestral  worship  of  the  patrician  was 
exclusively  for  the  family,  the  teachings  of  the 
ancient  philosophers  were  for  the  learned  few;  but 
the  Christian  religion  carried  its  morality  and  its 
comforts  of  hope  and  worship  down  to  the  poor 
and  obscure,  and  up  to  the  distinguished  and  rich. 
It  stopped  not  in  cities,  but  it  went  out  into  the 
hedges  and  highways  of  the  world;  it  lingered  not 


164  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

even  in  Asia,  its  Lome,  but  it  went  abroad  into  all 
the  world,  and  delivered  its  moral  ideas,  and  its 
feelings  of  devotion,  to  every  creature.  The  time 
had  come  for  a  new,  wider,  more  enduring  force 
in  civilization  and  law  than  that  of  any  religion  or 
philosophy  ever  before  known;  a  force  that  had 
man  for  its  subject,  and  the  world  for  its  forum 
and  jurisdiction;  a  force  more  organized  and  prop- 
agand  than  that  of  any  previous  intellectual  or 
moral  movement;  a  conservative,  remedial,  aggres- 
sive, hopeful,  universal  regenerator.  Such  was 
Christianity.  It  brought  the  grand  old  Jewish  law 
and  civilization  down  to  an  age  and  people  when 
these  old  legal  and  civil  forces  could  join  in  the 
moral  care  of  the  whole  world,  which,  in  their 
former  exclusiveness,  they  could  not  do;  and  it 
added  natural  reason  and  the  morality  of  an  ac- 
credited revelation  to  what  was  good  in  the  an- 
cient family  and  political  law  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.  Solon  had  spoken  mere  human  wisdom; 
Moses,  and  now  Christ,  claimed  to  speak  divine 
wisdom.  Mars  Hill,  Sinai,  and  Calvary  became 
the  immovable  thrones  of  eternal  law.  Christian- 
ity reunited  religion,  morality,  philosophy,  and 
law,   Avhich  Socrates,   five    hundred  years  before, 

had  divorced,   and    made    the   law    of    human  re- 


CHRISTIANITY   A  CIVILIZER.  165 

lations  conservative  by  again  teaching  it  as  di- 
vine. TIius  Christianity,  as  a  civilizer,  apart  from 
Christianity  as  a  theology,  spread  itself  everywhere 
as  a  new  living  force.  Its  morality  had  new  mo- 
tives, new  development,  and  new  application.  It 
claimed  to  be  no  merely  human  theory  of  conduct, 
upon  the  low  plane  of  human  reason,  confined  to 
the  schools  of  a  select  few,  and  barren  of  practical 
results;  but  it  acted  as  if  inspired  by  a  supernal 
power  to  realize  and  propagate  itself,  and  claimed 
to  be  a  revelation.  All  ages  have  had  their  moral 
schemes;  but  none,  like  Christianity,  was  ever 
more  self-helping,  more  all-helping,  more  simpli- 
fied to  common  apprehension,  and  so  earnestly  and 
universally  disseminated  over  the  earth.  Its  max- 
ims were  for  all  classes  and  all  nations,  and  it 
could,  therefore,  enter  into  the  civilization  of  all 
ages.  It  united  the  highest  moral  feeling  with  the 
purest  moral  thought,  and  so  unveiled  essential 
law. 

From  this  general  discussion  of  principles  rep- 
resented we  deduce  these  conclusions:  1.  That  if 
all  sacred  lines  lead  to  bigotry,  so  all  secular  lines, 
whether  before  or  after  Christ,  tend  to  despotism. 
Which  has  been  the  worst — under  which  evil  has 
society  been  the  purest  and  happiest?    Let  us  seek 


166  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

the  best  in  all  secular  wisdom  and  the  best  in 
every  sacred  worship.  2.  No  religious  error  can 
resist  secular  force  and  philosophy,  and  no  secular 
force  should  be  encouraged  to  resist  religious  truth. 
3.  Superstition  and  myths  originate  in  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  past  or  the  fears  of  the  present,  and 
their  movement  is  a  shrinkage  from  the  belief  of  the 
many  to  that  of  the  few.  Christianity  is  claimed  to 
be  a  revelation  from  God,  and  its  movement,  like 
that  of  all  truth,  has  been  an  increment  from  the 
belief  of  the  few  to  that  of  the  many.  4.  The  radi- 
ations of  Christianity  carry  the  lines  of  modern 
liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity  across  all  secular 
lines,  and  modify  them,  while  the  lines  of  secular 
force  cross  all  the  lines  of  ancient  religion  and 
liberty,  and  destroy  them.  5.  The  maximum  of  des- 
potism was  the  minimum  of  Christianity,  and  the 
maximum  of  Christianity  is  the  minimum  of  des- 
potism. Moral  action  comes  from  moral  thought, 
and  moral  thought  is  made  effective  by  moral  feel- 
iug,  and  moral  feeling  by  worship,  but  moral  ac- 
tion is  no  part  of  merely  mental  culture.  Theodore 
Parker,  in  his  discourse  on  Eeligion,  says:  "The 
religious  and  moral  elements  mutually  involve 
(sacli  other  in  practice;  neither  can  attain  a  perfect 
development  without  the  other;  but  they  are  yet 


CIVILIZATION   DEFINED.  167 

as  distinct  from  eacli  other  as  the  faculties  of  sight 
and  hearing,  or  memory  and  imagination." 

Socrates  came  and  expanded  moral  thought, 
but  contracted  religious  if  not  moral  feeling. 
Christ  came  and  enlightened  moral  thought  and 
expanded  moral  feeling.  One  had  wisdom  and  no 
worship;  the  other  had  both  wisdom  and  worship. 
The  gauge  of  civilization  is  not  so  much  in  its 
mental  thought,  or  its  moral  thought,  as  in  its 
moral  feeling.  Feeling  gives  faith,  and  faith  gives 
feeling,  and  this  is  religion.  Religion  is  sensitive, 
and  secular  force  represses  it,  and  skeptical  phil- 
osophy chills  it;  but  it  triumphs  by  persecution, 
and  expires  by  neglect- 
Let  us  see  whether  the  civil  or  religious  basis  of 
the  principles  of  life  has  evoluted  the  most  happi- 
ness of  life.  That  is  best  which  saves  most  life,  and 
that  is  Avorst  which  destroys  most  life.  Civilization 
is  man  and  society  at  their  best;  in  other  words, 
the  civilizing  law  is  the  law  of  harmony — it  is  evo- 
lutions. It  is  a  ladder  with  its  two  sides,  the  one 
sacred  and  the  other  secular,  parallel  and  con- 
nected, yet  meeting  in  infinity,  bearing  upward  to- 
ward an  awaiting  Power,  the  ascending  generations 
of  men.  Each  nation  has  its  own  ladder — as  of 
utility   in    China  and  Germany,  of  meditation  in 


168  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

India,  of   speculative  tliouglifc   in  Greece,  and  of 
love  of  glorj  in  Rome. 

Christianity  is  part  of  spiritual  equality  and 
tlie  law  of  lielp — in  otlier  words,  it  is  invo- 
lution. On  the  sacred  side  of  civilization,  the 
Church  of  Christ,  with  her  ancient  creed,  her 
deathless  hopes,  the  consecrated  zeal  of  her  de- 
voted missionaries  and  saintly  martyrs,  with  a  full 
conviction  of  her  divine  permanence,  and  syn- 
chronizing with  all  civil  changes  of  eighteen 
hundred  years,  contrasting  with  the  throbbing 
fragments  of  dismembered  kingdoms  and  de- 
mocracies, and  the  blood  and  carnage  of  innu- 
merable revolutions,  the  Church  abides — the  con- 
servative unity  of  divine  order  against  popular 
passion  and  chaos — an  enlarging,  ancient,  and  per- 
petual power  of  supreme  good.  Christianity  has 
no  nationality  or  political  partialities.  Its  mission 
is  to  men,  and  not  to  governments.  It  is  restricted 
to  no  class  or  race;  but  regarding  the  whole  Avorld 
as  one  country,  with  unabated  zeal  and  exhaust- 
less  enterprise  and  cnergj',  it  seeks  human  im- 
provement under  all  vicissitudes  and  under  overj' 
form  of  government  that  challenges  the  secular 
control  of  man.  The  Church  will  erect  her  altars 
beside  every  throne,  and  place  her  mitre  by  the 


SOCIAL  FORCES  CORRELATED.  169 

side  of  every  crown.  Cousin  Sfiysf  "  Cliristianitj 
is  the  philosophy  of  the  people."  True  civiliza- 
tion is  the  work  of  some  Power  averaging  a  people 
upward. 

THE   CORRELATION  AND   EQUILIBRIUM  OP  SECULAR  AND 
SACRED   FORCES. 

The  secular  side  of  this  ladder  of  civilization  is 
broken  by  decay,  hacked  by  the  swords  of  patriots, 
and  of  traitors  of  revolutions,  and  patched  by  the 
carpentry  of  repeated  and  successive  social  experi- 
ments. On  this  side  are  the  fluctuations  of  civil 
administrations — the  chief  frictions  of  society — 
the  compulsions,  the  prisons,  the  armies  and 
battles,  and  the  wastage  of  life  and  treasure.  For 
eighteen  hundred  and  seventy-nine  years  A.D. 
1-1879,  tliere  have  been  in  Italy: 

On  the  Secular  Side:  On  the  Sacred  Side: 
Fifty  Caesar  Emperors  (1^76)  Were  two  hundred  and  fifty- 
Seven  Gothic  Kings  (476-563)  nine  Bishops  or  Popes  of  Eome, 
Thirteen     Lombard     Kings  ;  elected    from   every   class   and 
twenty-one  Exarchs  of  Ravenna  nation,  ruling  with  remarkable 
(553-752).  unity  of  policy  and  permanence 
French  and  German  Empe-  of  order.    Some  of  their  deaths, 
rors,  Norman  Dukes,    Princes,  though  many  of  them  were  old 
Saracens,  Austrians  and  others,  men  when  elevated  to  the  Pri- 
to  the  present  time.     Assassiua-  macy,  were  conspicuous  for  mar- 
tions  were  numerous.  tyrdom  for  truth  and  holiness. 

(a)  1  History  of  Philosophy,  p.  47. 


170 


THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 


During  tlie  one  thousand  years,  from  tlie  estab- 
lishment of  the  Eastern  or  Greek  Empire,  in  450, 
to  1450,  at  its  overthrow  by  the  Turks,  there  have 
been, 

On  the  Secular  Side:  On  the  Sacred  Side: 

Seventy-eight  Greek  Empe-  For  same  time,  one  hnndred 
rors,  with  an  average  reign  of  and  thirty  Patriarchs  of  the 
twelve  years,  ruling  by  force  of  Greek  Church,  with  an  average 
arms.  patriarchate  of  seven  years,  rul- 

ing by  force  of  religious,  theol- 
ogical, and  ecclesiastical  ideas. 
Tlie  administration  of  each  was 
long,  considering  the  great  age 
at  which  so  many  of  them  en- 
tered upon  their  consecrated 
duties. 

Taking  another  one  thousand  years  of  compari- 
son, in  Euglish  history,  from  the  beginning  of 
modern  times,  A.  D.  837-1837,  to  the  beginning  of 
the  present  reign,  and  there  have  been, 

On  the  Secular  Side:  On  tlie  Sacred  Side: 

Sixty-four  English  Sover-  In  the  same  time,  seventy- 
eigns,  witli  an  average  reign  of  four  Archbisliops  of  Canter- 
fifteen  years,  ten  changes  of  bury,  with  an  average  primacy 
dynasties,  and  eleven  unnatural  of  thirteen  years,  and  three 
deaths.  unnatui'al   deaths.      Here,  too, 

were  many  old  men,  to  reduce 
the  average  length  of  service. 

But  the  parallelism  is  rather  between  Christian- 
ity as  a  great  unit  of  faith  and  power  in  the  Avorld, 
whether  administered  by  Eoman  Pope,  Greek  Pa- 


SECULAR   WASTAGE.  171 

triarcli,  or  Anglican  Arclibishop,  and  the  various 
and  changing  nationalities  of  civil  order,  rather 
than  a  comparison  of  any  one  branch  of  the  uni- 
versal church  with  any  one  civil  order  of  govern- 
ment. 

WASTAGE  ON  THE   SECULAR   SIDE. 

On  the  secular  side  is  almost  all  the  destructive- 
ness  of  civilization.  As,  in  these  days  of  statistics, 
they  have  ceased  to  be  pedantic,  I  will  state  that 
it  is  said  that  Xerxes  left  over  five  million  human 
skeletons  on  the  soil  of  Greece.  Alexander  scat- 
tered them  over  the  eastern  world  by  millions. 
Who  can  estimate  the  millions  slain  by  Attila, 
Alaric,  Genseric,  and  Odoacer?  Zenghis  Khan, 
the  Tartar,  captured  ninety  cities,  and  slew  four- 
teen millions  of  men;  and  from  the  Caspian  to  the 
Indus,  ruined  a  tract  of  country  of  many  hundred 
miles,  which  was  adorned  with  the  habitations  and 
labors  of  mankind,  and  in  four  years,  says  Gibbon, 
committed  ravages  that  five  hundred  years  have 
not  been  sufficient  to  repair.  Timour,  one  hun- 
dred and  seventy  years  after,  extended  and  inten- 
sified these  horrors.  Gibbon  says  that,  "though 
•  the  petty  tyrants  of  Persia,  whom  he  conquered, 
might  afflict  their  subjects,  whole  nations  were 
crushed  under  the  footsteps  of  the  monster.     The 


172  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

ground  whicli  had  been  occupied  by  flourishing 
cities  was  often  marked  by  his  abominable    tro- 
phies, by  cohimns  and  pyramids  of  human  heads. 
Astracan,  Carizme,  Delhi,  Ispahan,  Bagdad,  Alep- 
po,  Damascus,   Boursa,  Smyrna,  and  a  thousand 
others,  were  sacked,  burnt,  or  utterly  destroyed, 
in  his  presence,  and  by  his  troops;  and  the  victims 
of  his  ambitious  cruelty  might  be  counted  by  mill- 
ions."     In  eight  years,  C?esar  fought  five  hundred 
battles,  captured  two  millions  of  men,  thousands 
upon  thousands  of   whom  died  in  captivity,  and 
slew  one  million  two  hundred  thousand;  twenty- 
two  thousand  of   the  inhabitants  of    Cordova  he 
put  to  death  for  adhering  to  Pompey,   in  battle. 
Pompey   conquered    fifteen   kingdoms,   and   took 
eight   hundred   cities.     Charlemagne   made   fifty- 
three  campaigns,  and  slew  hundreds  of  thousands. 
Napoleon  took  twenty-one  cities,  fought  forty-seven 
battles,  "and  caused  the  death  of  five  million  men 
from  thirty  years  old  to  middle  age,  and  who  had, 
therefore,  still  thirty-seven  years  each  to  live,  ac- 
cording to  the  calculated  probability  and  the  laws 
of  life.    He  destroyed,  therefore,  one  hundred  and 
eighty-five  millions  of  years  of  life,"  if  they  all  had 
boon  the  life  of  one  man. 


WHAT   WAR   COSTS.  173 

England,  alone,  in  one  hiin-  During  these  one  hundred  and 

dred   and  twenty-seven   years,  twenty-seven  years,  the  Church, 

from    1688-1815,    the    date    of  in  her  conservative  and  peaceful 

the  downfall  of  Napoleon,  spent  works,  was  repairing  this  enor- 

sixty-five  years  in  secular  war,  mous  secular  wastage  to  civil- 

and    only   sixty-two   in   peace,  ization  by  establishing,  in  addi- 

expending  ten  billions  one  hun-  tion  to  the  existing  ten   great 

dred  and  fifteen  millions  of  dol-  endowed  schools  or  universities, 

lars,  and  sacrificing,  in  the  last  nearly  two  liundred  other  im- 

war  alone  with  Napoleon,  on  all  portant  educational  institutions, 
sides,  nearly   a   million   and   a 
quarter  of  lives. 

A  great  English  statesman  (Burke)  estimates 
that  hitherto  there  have  been  sacrificed  in  battles 
and  their  immediate  consequences,  the  horrid  ag- 
gregate of  thirty-six  billions  of  human  lives, 
which,  if  extended  to  the  allotted  age  of  man, 
would  have  been  one  trillion  three  hundred  and 
thirty-two  billions  of  years  of  human  lives — the 
number  of  individuals  sacrificed  being  about 
thirty-six  times  as  many  peoj^le  as  are  now  in  the 
world. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  value  of  the 
property  wasted  by  the  sacking  and  burning  of 
villages  and  cities,  the  destruction  of  ships  and 
commerce,  the  ruins  of  splendid  capitals  of  wealth 
and  art  in  the  revolutions  of  empires,  and  their 
repeated  conquests  and  re-conquests  of  each  other 
in  all  the  ages  of  secular  movements,  leading  up 


174  THE  UNITY  OF  LAW. 

so-called  liiiman  progress  to  this  hour.  God's 
memory  only  knows  tlie  indescribable  aggregate  of 
tlie  siglis,  tears,  blood,  groans,  and  graves  on  this 
secular  side  of  civilization. 

Yoltaire  says  that  it  is  war  alone  that  impover- 
ishes nations. 

According  to  history,  Julius  Cfcsar,  upon  his 
conquest  of  Gaul,  Africa,  Egypt,  and  Pontus,  is 
said  at  one  time  to  have  had  carried  before  him  in 
his  triumph,  as  spoils  of  war,  vessels  of  gold  and 
silver,  computed  by  modern  authors  to  be  equal  in 
value  to  twelve  millions  of  pounds  sterling,  and 
brought  into  the  Roman  treasury,  besides  one 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  twenty-two  pounds  of 
gold,  diamonds  of  enormous  weight. 

WASTAGE   ON  THE   SACRED   SIDE. 

On  the  sacred  side  of  civilization,  the  destruc- 
tion of  life  and  property,  compared  with  those  on 
the  secular  side,  is  as  nothing. 

From  the  secular  side  deduct,  for  the  wastage 
on  the  sacred  side,  any  numbers  that  the  utmost 
stretch  of  the  imagination  would  state  as  probable 
(Voltaire's  estimate  is  ten  millions),  say  two  mill- 
ions for  the  Crusades,  one  million,  if  you  choose, 
for  the  Inquisition,  and  six  millions  for  the  Thirty- 


TRUE   CHRISTIANITY.  175 

years'  War  (Sclierr,  as  cited  by  Hlttell,  says  eleven 
millions  five  hundred  thousand) — and  these  esti- 
mates are  thought  to  he  enormous — and  still  these 
nine  millions  or  fourteen  millions  are  as  nothing  to 
the  thirty-six  billions  on  the  other  side.  For  every 
one  killed  through  the  perversion  of  religion,  there 
have  been  four  thousand  slain  for  the  secular  wick- 
edness and  energies  of  civilization. 

The  office  of  Christianity  is  to  bind  up  wounds, 
not  make  them;  to  receive  blows,  not  give  them; 
to  leave  its  benediction  on  graves,  not  dig  them. 
Its  wars  and  bloodsheds  have  been  the  mournful 
fruits  of  secular  perversions,  when  abused  and  de- 
bauched by  unchristian  passions.  In  the  wars  in 
the  days  of  Christianity,  religion  has  been  the 
pretext,  not  the  real  cause.  All  the  true  passions 
of  Christianity  are  benign  and  passive,  not  bitter 
and  aggressive.  All  earthliness  destroys  it.  It 
has  suffered  persecutions  and  martyrdoms,  and 
has  been  pre-eminently  on  the  defensive.  Its 
prophets  have  been  stoned,  sawn  asunder,  and 
burned;  its  Teacher  crucified;  its  disciples  hated, 
impoverished,  slain  by  every  device  that  imagina- 
tion can  picture.  The  passions,  the  pleasures, 
the  pursuits  of  the  world  have  conflicted  with  it; 
and  yet,  in  the  main,  its  history  has  been  one  of 


176  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

beneficence.  Its  greatest  sliame  lias  been  its  per- 
secution of  the  Jews.  It  is  yet  to  be  seen  what 
atonement  the  immutable  laws  will  evolve.  When 
smitten  on  the  one  cheek,  it  has  generally  turned 
the  other. 

This  religion,  though  far  short  of  its  wish  or 
ability,  has  done  all  the  good  a  wicked  world 
would  let  it  do,  and  far  more  than  any  other 
agency  thus  opposed,  as  it  has  been,  by  national 
wars,  secular  engrossments,  and  personal  corrup- 
tion. 

It  has  been  asked,  why  did  not  Christianity, 
with  its  continuity  and  moral  conservatism,  avert 
national  dissolutions  and  chaos?  It  preserved  all 
that  was  worth  preserving,  or  all  that  it  was  per- 
mitted to  preserve.  For  three  hundred  years  it 
had  first  to  preserve  itself. 

It  may  be  asked,  by  way  of  reply,  why  did  not 
the  earthly  secular  influences  save  them,  if  religion 
be  unnecessary  to  the  world  ?  Why  do  not  secular 
laws,  even  now,  keep  the  peace  of  the  world  and 
secure  personal  safety?  The  fault  is  not  in  public 
laws.  Why  do  not  philosophers,  poets,  orators, 
and  scientists  enlighten  more  people?  The  answer 
is,  because  they  are  not  known  to  the  multitudes; 
and  if  they  were  known,  they  offer  no  religion  to 


BUEKE  ON   SECULAR  WARS.  177 

the  conscience  and  feelings  of  man,  and  so  no  self- 
restraining  power.  TLe  masses  are  ignorant,  and 
will  ever  remain  so.  We  would  suppose  that  hu- 
manity had  Lied  enough  to  stop  war.  But  each 
generation,  not  sharing  in  the  experience  of  the 
past,  must  try  war  for  itself. 

The  cause  why  the  past  does  not  more  improve 
the  present  is  in  ourselves.  But  in  all  fairness,  it 
may  be  said  that  secular  influences  have  failed  far 
more  than  the  sacred.  Divine  wisdom  says,  "Ye 
will  not  come  unto  me  that  ye  might  have  life." 
"  Why  will  ye  die  ?" 

As  a  rule,  we  repeat  that  the  movements  on  the 
sacred  side  have  been  conservative :  soothing  hu- 
man passions,  instructing  the  savage  nature  of 
man,  and  training  it  in  the  habits  of  morality  and 
worship.  Burke  says:  "If  pretended  revelations 
have  caused  wars  where  they  were  opposed,  and 
slavery  where  they  were  received,  the  pretended 
wise  inventions  of  politicians  have  done  the  same. 
But  the  slavery  has  been  much  heavier  and  the 
wars  far  more  bloody,  and  both  more  universal  by 
many  degrees.  Show  me  any  one  Avickedness 
produced  by  the  wickedness  of  theologians,  and 
I  will  show  you  a  hundred  resulting  from  the 
ambition  and  villainy  of   conquerors  and   states- 


178  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

men.  Show  me  an  absurdity  in  religion,  and  I 
will  undertake  to  show  you  a  hundred  for  one  in 
political  laws  and  institutions."  Secular  forces, 
like  the  spots  on  the  leopard,  or  the  stripes  on  the 
tiger,  differ  with  every  race,  tribe,  and  age.  But 
Christianity,  the  great  sacred  force,  so  far  as  we 
are  concerned,  like  the  diffusive  light  of  the  sun, 
is  one. 

It  is  evident  that  civilization  derives  a  very  dif- 
ferent support  respectively  from  these  secular  and 
sacred  sides.  On  the  sacred  side  are  found  the 
strength  of  exalted  emotion  and  refined  senti- 
ments, persistence  of  mission  and  zeal,  unity  of 
great  remedial,  helpful,  leading  ideas  and  doc- 
trines, and  universality  of  application  to  all  na- 
tions, tongues,  and  eras. 

2.  THE  CORRELATION  OF  MORALITY  FROM  THE  STATE  BASIS  TO 
THE  MONOTHEISTIC,  PARTICULARLY  AS  SEEN  IN  CHRISTIAN- 
ITY, APPEARS  IN  THE  GROWTH  OF  LAW. 

Law,  divorced  from  religious  morals,  falls  off 
into  a  system  of  mere  logic,  and  morals,  divorced 
from  religion  of  some  kind,  gradually  lapses  into 
mere  theory.  When  Christianity  began  to  affect 
the  law,  the  law  retained  all  its  past  logical  per- 
fection for  the  rule,  and  added  the  elements  of  the 
new  religion  for  its  ]n-inciples.     The  practical  part 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   LAW.  179 

was  from  man,  the  essential  was  accredited  to  a 
Power  above  man. 

It  is  impossible  to  avoid  the  consideration  of 
Cliristiauity  in  its  relation  to  the  laAvs  of  Christen- 
dom. Misunderstanding  what  Sir  Matthew  Hale 
meant  in  saying  that  "Christianity  is  parcel  of  the 
laws  of  England,"  and  Lord  Mansfield's  subsequent 
modification,  that  "the  essential  principles  of  re- 
vealed religion  are  part  of  the  Common  Law," 
there  has  been  an  overstrained  denial  of  what  they 
are  supposed  to  have  dechired.  Laws  reflect  pub- 
lic opinion,  and  if  there  be  Christianity  in  that, 
there  is  something  of  Christianity  in  the  law. 
Late  writers  seem  to  have  written  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  admission  that  Christianity  is  a 
part  of  the  law  of  the  land  must  lead  to  the  legal 
adoption  of  a  Christian  worship  by  the  State;  but 
a  Christian  ritual  by  the  State  is  not  necessary  to 
the  identification  of  Cliristiauity  with  the  common 
law  of  the  land.  It  must  be  evident  to  all  readers 
of  history  that  the  prevailing  thought  of  a  people 
shapes  its  public  polity.  All  law  springs  from 
popular  beliefs.  This  has  been  so  in  all  ages,  and 
must  ever  so  continue.  The  deepest  interests  of  a 
people  inspire  its  laws — and  this  is  their  religion. 
The  people  who  first  came  to  tljis  continent  were 


180  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

most  devout,  even  fanatical  Christians.  With  the 
Puritans  of  New  Enghancl,  the  disciplinary  laws  of 
the  church  were  the  municipal  laws.  They  came  to 
the  wilderness  of  America  expressly  to  enjoy  re- 
ligious freedom — not  freedom  from  religion,  but 
freedom  in  it.  It  was  deep  religious  feelings  and 
convictions  that  expatriated  them  from  former 
homes;  it  was  the  power  of  these  feelings  that  sus- 
tained them  under  their  severe  trials,  and  the  tone, 
and  spirit,  and  sanction  of  their  views  of  Chris- 
tianity entered  into  and  characterized  all  their  laws. 
They  professed  to  prefer  no  one  sect  or  denom- 
ination, but  the  settlers  of  this  continent  and  the 
institutors  of  our  laws  were  both  intolerant  and 
practically  denied  religious  equality  as  to  other 
religions.  Out  of  this  history,  and  by  people 
moved  by  zealous  feelings  and  convictions,  come 
our  laws.  These  laws  are  neither  Mohammedan, 
Brahminical,  nor  Jewish,  beyond  what  the  Chris- 
tian Church,  in  all  its  past  ages,  allowed  them  to 
be.  Our  domestic  relations,  our  legal  holidays, 
the  mental  and  moral  habits  of  the  people,  the 
conscientious  element  of  equity  law,  the  universal 
and  legal  prohibition  of  Mormon  polygamy,  and 
more  that  might  be  mentioned,  show  that  the 
spirit  of  Christianity,  if  not  its  precepts,  as  a  great 


CHRISTIANITY   AND   LAW.  181 

religion  of  the  world,  are  a  part  of,  and,  indeed, 
saturate  the  whole  of  our  Common  Law.  Even  the 
adopted  Civil  Law  is  filtered  through  fifteen  cen- 
turies of  ecclesiastical  life.  Indeed,  our  civiliza- 
tion is  Christianity  largely  organized  into  political 
and  social  life.  The  most  of  the  history  of  this 
people  is  under  it;  at  the  altar,  at  the  font,  at  the 
grave — all  is  Christian.  While  the  laws  may  nom- 
inally tolerate  every  religion,  it  is  useless  to  deny 
that  practically,  in  the  inevitable  prejudices  of  the 
people,  no  other  than  the  Christian  religion  is  at 
home  in  America,  or  under  any  European  civiliza- 
tion. Christianity  and  progress,  in  our  thoughts, 
are  one.  The  cause  enters  into  its  effects;  and  so 
far  as  Christianity,  from  its  own  essential  life,  has 
helped  the  law  to  principles  of  right  unknown  to  it 
before,  so  far  it  is  a  part  of  the  law.""    Christianity, 

{a)  See  Cooley's  Constitutional  Limitation,  p.  472;  Whealon  v. 
Peters,  8  Pet.  591;  Sedgwick  on  the  Construction  of  Statutory 
and  Constitutional  Law,  p.  14;  Cooley  on  Constitutional  Limita- 
tions, 4/2;  3  Wharton's  American  Criminal  Law,  p.  188;  Vidal 
V.  G/ranVs  Executors,  2  How.  127;  Updeyraph  v.  The  Common- 
roealth,  11  Sergeant  &  liawle,  394;  The  People  v.  Buggies,  8  John- 
ston R.  290;  The  Vomwonwealth  v.  Kneeland,  20  Pick.  20G;  The 
State  V.  Chandler,  2  Har.  553;  Bloom  v.  Richards,  2  Ohio,  387;  ■ 
McGutrick  v.  Wasson,  4  Ohio,  571;  The  Board  of  Education  of 
Cincinnati  v.  Minor  et  al,  23  Ohio,  246;  Andreiv  v.  The  N.  Y. 
Bible  and  Prayer  Book  Society,  4  Sandf.  Sup.  Ct.  Rep.  ISO;  Don- 
ahoe  V.  Richards,  38  Me.  379;  Pomeroy,  Introduction  to  Munic- 


182  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

then,  historically,  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  law  of 
the  land  as  the  suu  is  of  the  wheat  in  the  field,  or 
of  the  rose  in  the  garden,  or  of  the  rainbow  in  the 
sky  that  glorifies  the  expiring  storm. 

All  law  of  the  lawyer  is  but  the  collective  opin- 
ions and  will  of  the  public,  first  seen  in  customs, 
manners,  and  social  habits,  duly  expressed;  and  if 
that  be  Christian,  the  law  is  Christian;  if  that 
mind  be  Mohammedan,  the  law  is  Mohammedan;  if 
Buddhistic,  the  law  is  Buddhistic.  Universal  jus- 
tice becomes  law,  so  far  as  national  idiosyncracies 
appropriate  and  adapt  it  to  their  social  life.  So 
that  the  question  is  not  so  much  whether  Chris- 
tianity be  a  part  of  the  Common  Law  as  that  the 
law,  for  its  own  permanence,  be  approved  by 
Christianity,  if  Christianity  be  the  popular  faith. 
Law  exists  so  long  as  public  opinion  permits  it  to 
exist.  The  public  opinion  of  this  country  is  Chris- 
tian opinion;  therefore,  law  lives  or  dies  at  the 
bidding  of  Christianity,  and  not  Christianity  at  the 
bidding  of  the  law.  If  the  Legislature  should  enact, 
or  the  Court  should  enunciate  as  law,  anything  that 
gravely  wounded  the  Christian  sentiment  of  the 

ipal  Law,  392.  It  may  be  said  generally  that  the  above  authori- 
ties lay  down  tlie  rule  tliat  all  religions  have  e(|ual  rights  before 
tlic  law,  but  have  they  contributed  ecjually  to  its  principles  ? 


LAW   AND   PUBLIC   OriNION.        -  183 

laud,  tliousauds  upon  thousands  of  Christian  pul- 
pits, presses,  books,  and  organizations  would  at 
once  and  persistently  assail,  if  not  destroy  it.  The 
strongest  feelings  of  the  majority  of  the  people 
would  cry  out  against  its  existence.  Suppose  all 
marriages,  in  any  form,  were  deemed  no  longer 
necessary;  or  husbands  and  wives  could  divorce 
themselves  at  pleasure;  or  there  was  permitted  a 
plurality  of  husbands  and  wdves :  or  a  promiscuous 
living  of  men  and  w^omen  together — how  long  do 
you  suppose  such  a  law  would  stand?  With  a 
Christianized  public  opinion,  you  must  have  Chris- 
tian laws,  or  laws  which  Christianity  does  not  op- 
pose. Feudalism  went  down  before  the  public 
Christian  opinion  of  the  centuries.  So  did  polyg- 
amy, and  slavery,  and  the  degradation  of  woman. 
Keligion,  above  all  else,  makes  public  opinion; 
and  public  opinion,  with  the  sword  behind  it,  an- 
nounces law.  The  relation,  of  religion  and  law  is 
not  that  luldch  the  law,  as  an  abstract  entity,  may 
choose  of  itself  to  give  to  religion,  hut  -precisely  that 
lohich  religion,  as  the  rnost  potential  form  of  pnhlic 
opinion,  may  choose  to  require  or  permit  the  law  to  he. 
The  general  effort,  of  late,  seems  to  be  to  show 
that  our  municipal  law  takes  only  that  notice  of 
Christianity  which  it  takes  of  any  other  religion. 


184:  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

But  the  law  notices  Christianity  as  it  notices  no 
other  religion,  because  the  prevailing  public  senti- 
ment, which  is  always  the  law-maker,  requires  it. 
It  notices  Christianity  all  that  Christianity  re- 
quires. Christianity  neither  asks  nor  permits — nor 
could  it  endure — the  State  to  issue  legal  formulas 
of  law  about  doctrine  or  discipline.  But  Chris- 
tianity extends  its  help  to  the  law,  while  asking 
none  in  return.  The  law  has  the  holy  days  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  none  of  any  other.  Chris- 
tianity moulds  the  general  morality  of  society, 
gives  the  sanction  to  legal  oaths;  by  prayers  on 
public  legal  occasions,  by  refusing  the  right  of 
Governors  to  return  bills  to  the  Legislature  on 
Sunday,  by  forbidding  Courts  to  transact  business 
on  Sunday,  the  law  commits  itself  to  Christianity. 
It  is  idle  to  talk  about  Sunday  as  a  mere  munici- 
pal appointment  of  a  secular  rest.  Christianity 
struggles  for  the  sanctity  of  this  day,  because  it  is 
a  sacred  day.  The  Supreme  Court  of  Ohio,  un- 
der the  pressure  of  anti-Christian  sentiment,  has 
been  called  upon  frequently,  and  has  expressed 
quite  sharply,  opinions  adverse  to  the  former 
maxim,  that  Christianity  is  a  part  of  the  law  of 
the  land.  It  says:  "The  only  foundation,  or 
rather  excuse,  for  the  proposition  that  Christian- 


LAW   AND   rUBLIC   OriNION.  185 

ity  is  a  part  of  tlie  law  of  this  country,  is  the  fact 
that  it  is  a  Christian  country,  and  that  its  Consti- 
tution and  laws  are  made  by  a  Christian  people." 
That  foundation  or  excuse,  it  would  seem,  is  quite 
sufficient.  "A  Christian  country"  and  "a  Chris- 
tian people"  might  well  be  supposed  to  have 
Christian  laws.  The  Court  further  says:  "If 
Christianity  is  a  law  of  the  State,  like  every  law, 
it  must  have  a  sanction.  Adequate  penalties  must 
be  provided  to  enforce  obedience  to  all  its  require- 
ments and  precepts."  And  it  has  many  of  these 
sanctions  in  its  marital  and  other  relations;  but 
laws  may  have  principles  without  special  sanc- 
tions. The  maxim  is  not  that  "Christianity  is 
a  law  of  the  State,"  but  that  "Christianity  is  a 
part  of  the  Common  Law."  If  Christianity,  in- 
cludiug  the  moral  law  of  Moses,  is  not  a  law  of 
the  State,  as  public  opinion  it  makes  the  laws 
of  the  State.  The  Common  Law  of  a  State  is 
the  common  moral  sense  of  the  State.  Chris- 
tianity, as  teacher  of  the  common  moral  senti- 
ments of  the  people,  is,  certainly,  "a  part  of  the 
Common  Law  of  the  people."  All  laws  have  both 
a  rule  and  a  reason,  or  principle  of  the  rule. 
Christianity,  or  its  institutions,  is  the  principle  of 
our  laws — or  rather  the  laws  do  not  venture  to  con- 


186  THE  UNITY   OP   LAW. 

flict  with  Christianity.     Principles  need  no  sanc- 
tions or  penalties.    The  people,  animated  by  these 
Christian  principles,  have,  through  the  department 
to  which  they  delegated  legislative  power,  enacted 
such  rules,  called   laws,  as  they  saw   fit  for  the 
public  peace  and  other  ends  of  civil  government; 
but  they  neither  needed,  nor,  in  the  numerous  de- 
nominational   specialties   of    Christianity,    would 
they  ask,  for  any  special  legislative  sanction  for 
their  religion.     The  question  is  not  Avhether  there 
is  or  is  not  any  sanction  for  whatever  of  Christian- 
ity there  may  be  in  the  common  law;  nor  whether 
other  religions  are  also  protected;  nor  whether  the 
law  will  go  further  in  the  recognition  of  Chris- 
tianity than  to  keep  the  peace  in  matters  concern- 
ing it;   bat  are  not  the  distinctive   principles  of 
Christianity  ingrained  in  the  moral  basis  of  the 
common  law?     Did  not  Christian   Prelates  orig- 
inate, and,  for  over  five  hundred  years,  preside  in 
the  courts  of  equity '?     Has  not  Christianity  done 
more  for  the  underlying  moral  principles  of  the 
law   than   any  other  religion,  and  has  it  a  moral 
basis   from   any   other    source   not   approved   by 
Christianity  in  its  long  connection  with  law  ? 

Whore  religions  arc  mainly  preceptive,  these  re- 
ligions can  be  put  into  the  shape  of  municipal  law 


LAW   AS  CHRISTIAN   MORALITY.  187 

with  penal  sanctions;  but  as  Christianity  offers 
itself  as  a  religion  of  principles,  rather  than  pre- 
cepts, a  spiritual  power  in  individuals,  rather  than 
a  something  for  the  civil  body  of  the  State — an  in- 
fluence over  the  inner  feelings,  a  regulation  of  the 
devotions,  with  a  vision  ever  turned  toward  the 
eternal — it  is  evident  that,  to  make  it  preceptive 
as  law,  would  be  to  destroy  it.  There  is  a  spirit 
of  love  in  it  that  no  State  could  enforce  by  law. 
But  to  say  that  there  is  no  Christianity  in  our 
common  law  is  to  say  that  there  can  be  a  control- 
ling power  without  an  influence,  or  a  body  without 
a  soul,  and  a  rule  without  a  principle — a  child  with- 
out a  father. 

But  it  by  no  means  follows  that  because  Chris- 
tianity did  not  ask  to  be  legalized  by  its  creature, 
the  law,  here,  as  in  some  other  countries,  it  is  no 
part  of  our  common  law.  All  judge-made  law  is 
nothing  but  the  announcement,  in  the  absence  of 
statute  law,  of  what  the  Court  understands  to  be 
the  well-ascertained  and  settled  common  moral 
ideas  of  the  public  at  the  time.  Certainly,  no,  ju- 
dicial decision  could  stand  the  ordeal  of  public 
condemnation,  that  should  conflict  with  any  settled 
public  morality.  Christianity  is  a  great  promoter 
of  moral   principles,   "lying   behind  and   above" 


188  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

the  common  law.  It  is  not  a  law  of  the  State, 
needing  a  special  sanction ;  but  as  yellow  is  a  part 
of  all  rays  of  white  light,  so  Christianity  is 
diffused  all  through  the  best  institutions  and 
laws  of  our  civilization.  It  not  only  makes  laws 
for  those  Avho  will  not  be  governed  without  law, 
but,  like  the  moralities  of  all  ages  and  religions, 
it  gives  principles  to  those  who  wish  and  endeavor 
to  live  Justly  without  written  law.*^ 

(a)  Christianity  and  the  Civil  Law  in  England. 
Hale,  Hist.  C.  L.,  139,  says:  "The  growth  of 
Christianity  in  this  Kingdom,  and  the  reception 
of  learned  men  from  other  parts,  and  especially 
from  Home,  aud  the  credit  that  they  obtained 
here,  might  reasonably  introduce  some  new  laws, 
and  antiquate  or  abrogate  some  old  ones  that  seem 
less  consistent  with  Christian  doctrine.  And  by 
this  means  were  introduced  not  only  some  of  the 
judicial  laws  of  the  Jews,  but  also  some  points  re- 
lating to,  or  bordering  upon,  or  derived  from  the 
canon  or  civil  laws,  as  may  be  seen  in  those  laws 
of  the  ancient  Kings,  Una,  Alfred,  Cannutus,  etc., 
collected  by  Lombard."  C.  J.  Holt,  12  Mod.,  E. 
482,  says:  "The  laws  of  all  nations  are  doubtless 
raised  out  of  the  ruins  of  the  civil  law,  from  which, 

{(i)  Sec  Albany  Law  Joiinial,  May  20,  1870. 


STOICISM   AND   LAW.  189 

it  must  be  owned,  tlio  principles  of  our  own  law 
fire  borrowed  in  many  things." 

With  respect  to  this  civil  law  it  is  well  to  re- 
mark here  that  no  one  knows — though  many  and 
learned  efforts  have  been  made  to  ascertain — what 
the  text  of  the  civil  law  writers  originally  was;  for 
each  successive  writer,  commentator,  or  codifier, 
corrupted  its  integrity  and  adapted  it  to  his  own 
time. 

It  is  evident  that  law,  like  everything  else, 
comes  out  of  its  antecedents  and  its  environment, 
and  that  the  mental  and  moral  ideas  most  preva- 
lent in  the  popular  mind,  or  most  controlling  with 
the  law-maker,  must  enter  into  the  spirit  and  form 
of  the  law  he  makes.  Professor  Maine  contends, 
as  Ave  have  seen,  that  stoicism — or  living  accord- 
ing to  nature  —  pervades  and  characterizes  the 
whole  body  of  civil  law,  because  the  civilians 
were  stoics.  For  the  same  reason,  it  would  seem, 
and  indeed  it  is  admitted,  that  Christianity  is  also 
a  part  of  the  vitality  and  essence  of  common  law, 
because  its  early  legislators  and  judges  were  Chris- 
tians. 

Saunders  in  his  introduction  to  Justinian,  says: 
"The  influence  of  Christianity  on  Koman  law  was 
partly  direct  and  partly  indirect.  The  establishment 


190  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

of  abierarcliical  rank,  the  power  granted  to  religions 
corporations  to  Lold  property,  the  distinction  be- 
tween Christians  and  heretics,  affecting  the  civil 
position  of  the  latter,  the  creation  of  Episcopal 
courts,  and  many  other  similar  innovations,  give 
rise  to  direct  specific  changes  in  the  law.  But  its 
influence  is  even  more  remarkable  in  the  changes 
which  were  suggested  by  its  spirit,  rather  than  in- 
troduced as  a  necessary  part  of  its  system.  To 
the  communit}'  which  citizenship  bound  together, 
succeeded  another,  bound  by  the  common  ties  of 
religion.  The  tendency  of  the  change  Avas  to  re- 
move the  barriers  which  had  formed  a  part  of  the 
older  condition  of  society.  If  we  compare  the 
Institutes  of  Justinian,  A.D.  540,  with  those  of 
Gains,  A.D.  130,  we  find  changes  in  the  law  of 
marriage,  in  that  of  succession,  and  in  many  other 
branches  of  the  law,  in  which  it  is  not  difficult  to 
recognize  the  spirit  of  humanity  and  reverence  for 
natural  ties  which  Christianity  had  inspired.  The 
disposition  to  get  rid  of  many  of  the  more  pecul- 
iar features  of  the  old  Eoman  law,  observable  in 
the  later  legislation,  was  partly,  indeed,  the  fruit 
of  secular  causes,  l)ut  it  Avas  also,  in  a  great  meas- 
ure, due  to  the  alteration  in  thought  and  feeling 
U)  wliich  the  new  rolitrion  had  i^ivon  birth." 


CANON  LAW.  191 

« 

Gibbon  says  that  Tribonian,  by  order  of  Jus- 
tinian, altered  the  text  of  the  authors  from  whom 
he  made  extracts,  into  "the  words  and  ideas  of  his 
servile  reign;"  and  this  was,  at  least,  nominally 
Christian. 

(&)  Christianity  through  the  Canon  Laio.  In 
speaking  of  the  jurisprudence  of  the  Court  of 
Chancery,  Maine  says,  A.  L.  42:  "The  early  Ec- 
clesiastical Chancellors  contributed  to  it,  from  the 
Canon  Law,  many  of  the  principles  which  lie 
deepest  in  its  structure."  Hadley,  introduction, 
B.  L.,  45,  says:  "The  Church,  at  an  early  period, 
claimed  and  secured  the  right  of  jurisdiction  in 
cases  where  her  own  interests  were  involved,  or 
those  of  her  ministers.  The  Ecclesiastical  Courts 
had  cognizance  of  offenses  committed  against  cler- 
gymen (or  alleged  to  have  been  committed  by 
clergymen),  and  of  all  encroachments,  real  or  sup- 
posed, on  the  property  rights  of  the  Church.  But 
their  jurisdiction  took  a  wider  range.  On  the 
ground  that  marriage  was  a  sacrament,  it  was  ex- 
tended to  matrimonial  law,  to  cases  of  divorce, 
alimony,  and  the  like.  From  the  connection  of 
wills  or  testaments  with  death — the  solemn  transi- 
tion to  a  spiritual  world — it  was  extended  to  tes- 


192  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

taiuentary  law,  to  the  proof  and  execution  of  wills, 
and  even  to  the  administration  of  properties  whose 
owners  died  without  wills.  To  all  these  cases  the 
ecclesiastical  courts  applied  their  own  ecclesiastical 
or  common  law."  This  was  little  else  than  the 
opinions  of  the  jurisconsults  of  the  Koman  Empire, 
or  civil  law,  run  through  the  mould  of  thought  of 
the  Priests,  Bishops,  Popes,  and  scholars  of  the 
Roman  Church,  applied  to  both  secular  and  eccle- 
siastical matters.  Under  their  jurisdiction,  such 
as,  in  addition  to  cases  already  mentioned,  was  the 
legitimacy  of  children  born  out  of  lawful  wedlock, 
and  the  whole  doctrine  respecting  the  distinctions 
of  j'us  ad  rem  and  jus  in  re,  of  oaths  and  usury. ^ 

Law  became  the  favorite  study  of  Churchmen. 
Skillfully  adapting  the  Koman  Jurisprudence  to 
their  purposes,  they  framed  a  code  which,  tainted 
as  it  was  by  the  vices  of  those  to  whom  it  owed  its 
origin,  is,  nevertheless,  by  the  example  which  it 
furnished  to  the  rude  nations  among  whom  it  was 
promulgated,  a  most  important  era  in  the  intel- 
lectual history  of  the  species. "^ 

(c)  Chrislianity  and  Feudalism.     The  first  polit- 

(a)  2  Col(iiihon  on  Roman  Civil  Law,  Tit.  IX,  §  1003. 
(I>)   I'liii.  and  i'rac.  of  Juris.,  riiilluiorc,  12. 


FEUDALISM   AND  LAW.  193 

ical  unity  begins  in  the  force  of  some  man  of  strong 
will,  booted  and  spurred,  riding  down  liumanity 
around  Lim.  Such  men  unify  their  clans,  and 
form  kingdoms;  and  kingdoms  form  empires.  But 
when  political  centralism  forms  the  mass,  the  man 
becomes  nothing,  and  power  becomes  impersonal, 
with  neither  sympathy  nor  conscience.  Such  it 
was  everywhere  in  the  eleventh  century,  when  Wil- 
liam the  Norman  conquered  Saxon  England,  and, 
as  a  pall  over  a  grave,  spread  over  the  island  his 
one  feudal  despotism.  This  was  the  most  savage 
unification  that  ever  stamped  the  soul  out  of  the 
individual  man. 

But  as  man  is  most  truly  man  when  there  is 
nothing  above  him  but  God,  and  most  truly  free 
when  free  from  within;  as  the  good  ever  pursues 
and  subdues  the  evil  of  the  world;  as  the  law  of 
self-preservation  preserves  all  that  is  worth  pre- 
serving; as  destructive  combinations  ever  beget 
conservative  combinations;  and  as  grains  of  sand 
scattered  upon  glass  come  together  at  the  vibration 
of  music,  so  did  the  sufferings  and  religious  sym- 
pathies of  the  Middle  Ages  unify  the  people  at  the 
beckoning  of  the  Church,  and  form  an  omnipresent 
brotherhood,  as  free  in  Christ  as  their  limited  cul- 
ture would  permit. 


194:  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

The  Church  had  no  struggle  for  the  right  of 
alienation  of  land  under  the  Saxons,  though  a  kind 
of  feudalism  had  partially  crept  in  Britain  before 
the  time  of  the  Normans;  but  at  the  Conquest 
feudalism  was  fully  established,  and  the  right  of 
alienation  by  will  was  entirely  taken  away,  aud  so 
remained,  until  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 

Feudalism,  as  we  have  said  before,  was  a  vast, 
indeed,  universal  system  of  military  despotism,  and 
lands  were  held  upon  condition  of  giving  military 
service  for  their  use.  Only  military  leaders  were 
free.  Even  among  these,  there  was  a  series  of 
ranks  and  dependencies.  In  fact,  at  the  Norman 
Conquest,  it  may  be  said  that  man,  in  secular 
affairs,  had  ceased  to  have  any  individual  impor- 
tance, and  personal  freedom  was  not  known  on  the 
earth.  All  the  best  aspirations  of  human  nature 
were  subordinated  to  arbitrary  force. 

The  brutality  of  this  system  is  beyond  descrip- 
tion. The  despots  were  unlettered,  coarse,  cruel 
masters.  Ouo  power  alone  remained  sufficiently 
strong  to  grapple  with  the  monster,  and  renew  the 
liberties  and  civilization  of  the  world  —  that  of 
Cliiisliaiiit)'  and  the  cliurcli.  This,  providentially, 
was  everywhere.     When  the  civil  powers  of  Home 


FEUDALISM   AND   CHRISTIANITY.  195 

broke  np,  Cliristianity  and  tlie  Clinrcli  remained 
entire.  Where  human  nature  was  most  degraded 
and  most  oppressed,  there  these  were  with  God's 
commission  to  emancipate  and  elevate.  All  were 
free  under  the  Saxons;  under  the  Normans,  all  but, 
the  church  were  unresisting  slaves.  Whether  it 
was  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  or  the  active 
energies  of  its  liberating  principles,  the  Church, 
under  Norman  England,  was  the  champion  of  both 
personal  and  national  liberty.  By  degrees  it  broke 
every  chain.  It  took  the  lowly  son  of  the  serf,  as 
Becket  and  Wolsey,  from  military  bondage,  ele- 
vated their  mitres  above  the  baronial  crown,  and 
clothed  him  with  the  power  of  sacred  orders,  with 
baronial  crowns  beneath  his  unsandaled  feet.*^  It 
raised  woman  as  she  crouched  at  the  foot  of  her 
savage  lord,  and  recognized  her  rights,  and  sancti- 
fied her  worth.  It  enlightened  the  judge  of  secular 
courts,  and  taught  him  law. 

The  issue  between  Feudalism  and  Christianity 
was  direct,  constant,  and  utterly  irreconcilable. 
Feudalism  regarded  man  as  a  mere  military  force, 
a  chattel,  a  slave,  a  creature  to  serve  another.  In 
the  Christian  scheme,  he  was  an  immortal  being, 

((()  Fhil.,  ante,  192. 


196  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

responsible  to  God.     In  these  two  systems,  the 
controlling  ideas  and  influences  were: 


Under  Christianity. 

Under  Feudalism. 

Christ. 

Masters. 

Man. 

Serfs. 

Sin. 

Wars. 

RedemiJtioii. 

Poverty. 

The  Church. 

Ignorance. 

Education. 

Degradation. 

Brotherhood. 

Despair. 

Liberty. 

Progress. 

The  most  glorious  struggle  of  Christianity  has 
been  to  dissolve  and  dissipate,  by  enlightenment, 
this  colossal,  all-absorbing,  all-crushing,  feudal 
system  of  brute  force,  and  form  and  mould 
society  upon  the  principles  of  regulated  liberty, 
equality,  and  fraternity. 

As  to  real  property,  feudalism  locked  up  its 
alienation,  and  held  the  country  but  as  one  vast 
military  camp.  But  when  the  military  necessities 
fell  off,  there  was  no  longer  any  reason  for  the 
system,  and  it  ought  to  have  been  changed  to  suit 
the  real  condition  of  the  world  and  the  growing 
interests  of  commerce.  But  by  whom  and  how 
could  this  be  done?  Among  the  most  eftective 
agencies  were  the  Church,  and  the  court  it  estab- 


LAWS   FKOM   CHRISTIANITY.  197 

lislied.  The  Christian  Clmrcli  created  tlie  court  of 
chancery,  and  for  six  hundred  years  supplied  it 
with  chancellors,  only  one  of  whom  was  success- 
fully impeached.  Several  times,  when  laymen  were 
appointed  to  the  wool-sack,  so  corrupt  or  incom- 
petent were  they,  that  the  crown  was  forced  to  re- 
turn to  the  clergy  for  the  chancellor.  It  is  simply 
impossible,  without  giving  the  whole  history  of  the 
common  law  of  England,  to  state  anything  like  its 
debt  to  the  Church.  The  Church  shaped,  if  it  did 
not  create,  the  law  of  uses;'*  it  protected  woman 
in  the  sacredness  of  her  marriage,  restrained  di- 
vorce, secured  her  right  of  dower  and  as  distrib- 
utee in  her  deceased  husband's  personal  estate; 
protected  minor  children,  lunatics,  and  the  imbe- 
cile; watched  over  the  conscientiousness  of  con- 
tracts; mitigated  the  severity  of  punishments;  put 
down  the  trial  by  battle;  wrote  Magna  Charta, 
and  almost  every  important  early  statute.  If 
the  opportunity  to  do  all  this  by  the  Church  was 
accidental,  the  Church  was  true  to  the  opportunity. 
As  your  religion,  so  is  your  law;  and  as  your  law, 
so  is  your  civilization. 

(d)  Chrlsliamty  is  for  all  nations.     As  has  been 
said,  Christianity  is  not  with  governments  as  such. 

(a)  Digby  Hist.  Real  Law,  2G8. 


198  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

It  does  not  propose  to  tear  down  or  build  up  any. 
Its  work  is  with  man  in  liis  earthly  career,  and 
fronting  an  eternal  destin}-.  The  soul  of  an  Afri- 
can is  as  dear  to  it  as  that  of  the  mightiest  em- 
peror of  the  world.  It  comes  not  to  call  the 
righteous,  but  sinners  to  repentance.  It  invites 
all,  the  proud  and  the  lowly,  the  white  and  the 
black,  the  monarchist  and  the  aristocrat,  the  citi- 
zens of  republics  and  the  conspirators  of  treasons. 
It  did  not  save  Rome,  for  such  was  not  its  mission. 
Men  died,  and  needed  salvation,  whether  the  Hun 
ruled  at  the  capital  or  the  Vandal  in  the  province. 
,  Christ  said  His  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world. 
Beyond  this  world,  the  State  projects  no  exploring 
thought  for  man.  From  this  solemn  future  of  hu- 
manity Christianity  never  withdraws  its  contem- 
plations and  preparations.  The  State  is  the  em- 
bodiment of  human  apathy.  Christianity  is  the 
expression  of  divine  sympathy.  The  one  addresses 
itself  to  the  will,  and  commands;  the  other  to  the 
heart,  and  persuades.  Each  one's  secular  life 
comes  from  what  he  is  to  man,  and  his  sacred  life 
from  what  he  is  to  all  above  man. 

The  State  is  the  authority  of  law  compelling  the 
masses;  Christianity  is  the  power  of  love  perfect- 
ing man.     The  ono  is  an  organism,  and  attempts 


THE   FUTURE   CONTllOLS   THE   PRESENT.  199 

only  a  policy;  the  other  is  a  helping  scheme,  and 
prevails  by  principles.  Policies  change,  principles 
abide.  As  self-preservation  is  an  instinct  Avith 
both  men  and  nations,  so  secular  governments, 
with  their  temporal  missions,  however  changeable 
in  form  and  religion,  will  run  on  to  the  end.  There 
is  uo  danger  that  the  unwise  opposition  of  skep- 
tical learning,  the  engrossments  of  wealth,  or  the 
intoxication  of  station,  will  ever  extinguish  relig- 
ion in  the  earth,  however  painfully,  for  a  time, 
they  may  impair  its  benign  work.  Beligion  is  the 
first  emotion  in  youth  and  purity,  and  it  will  be, 
as  ever,  the  last  sustaining  power  at  the  dread 
portal  of  the  grave. 

France  tried  civilization  without  religion;  and  so 
do  thieves,  assassins,  traitors,  and  others  chained 
to  crime.  But  society,  however  diverted  for  a 
time  by  brilliant  error,  ever  returns  to  its  altars 
and  its  worship  as  the  truest  power  in  the  heart  of 
man,  the  holiest  light  in  earthly  homes,  and  the 
only  hope  in  the  universal  grave.  We  care  less 
for  what  has  been  than  for  what  will  be.  Eternity 
awes  us  more  than  time.  The  future  controls  the 
present,  as  we  see  in  every  roof  built  for  future 
shelter,  every  morsel  put  away  for  future  food;  in 


200  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

short,  considerations  of  tlie  future  enter  into  every- 
thing man  does.  We  need  have  no  fear  of  decay. 
The  religious  side  of  civilization  is  as  long  and 
continuous  as  its  line  of  funerals.  The  grave  is 
ever  before  man,  and  however  he  may  seek  to  for- 
get it,  the  death  of  friends,  the  vacant  chair  at  the 
fireside,  the  hushed  sound  of  coming  and  going 
feet  that  once  were  heard  in  hall  and  chamber — all 
this  is  an  inexorable  teacher.  Coming  deaths  cast 
their  shadows  before,  and  the  present  or  last  one 
builds  a  creed  of  the  future.  So,  then,  man  can 
not  get  rid  of  religion  if  he  would;  it  is  inevitable 
and  all-controlling.  Whether  we  curse  or  pray, 
the  unpausing  future  inevitably  comes  and  goes, 
and  we  go  with  it.  In  spite  of  ourselves,  its  influ- 
ence is  ever  iipon  us,  and  beneath  the  canopy  of 
its  solemn  shadow,  with  skeletons  b}^  our  sides, 
and  graves  in  our  hearts,  we  erect  the  altar  of 
human  faith  and  hope.  We  look  at  death  and 
pray.  The  great  mystery  leads  to  a  great  solution. 
Civilization  derives  its  secular  inspiration  from 
events,  but  its  sacred  power  from  the  force  of  re- 
ligious principles.  The  secular  side  is  collective, 
and  looks  to  conduct,  or  what  wo  do;  the  sacred 
side  to  chai-acter,  or  what  we  arc,  and  to  destiny, 
or  what  wo  become.     God  is  in  all. 


THE   MOTIVE   OF   CIVILIZATION.  201 

Advanced  civilization  is  mostl}^  a  foreigner.  India 
gave  it  to  Egypt;  Egypt  to  Greece;  and  Greece  to 
Rome.  From  Greece  we  get  philosophy,  law  from 
Home,  and  religion  from  Judea.  The  best  we  have  of 
anything  is  but  in  part  from  ourselves.  The  petals 
of  the  flower  that  opens  its  sweet  colors  to  our 
wonder  and  delight  are  painted  by  a  pencil  held  in 
the  distant  sun.  As  from  above  come  the  waters 
that  flow  through  shapes  of  good  and  ill,  with  an 
ever-varying  depth  and  curve,  to  the  unfilled  sea, 
so  do  the  supreme  civilizing  forces  come  not  from 
ourselves,  but  from  the  dee]5  providence  of  divine 
wisdom.  On  its  secular  side,  civilization  either 
descends  to  us  from  the  past,  like  golden  sands 
down  the  channel  of  the  ages,  or  it  drifts  to  us, 
like  seeds  on  the  wind,  from  neighboring  conti- 
nents; or  it  is  carved,  like  mottoes  on  jewels,  by  the 
sword  of  remorseless  conquest. 

While  the  motive  of  civilization  is  found  in  the 
hopes  of  a  hidden  future,  its  lessons  come  from  the 
experiences  of  a  revealed  past,  which,  though  dead, 
yet  speaketh.  From  age  to  age,  ideas  or  jjatterns 
are  left  in  history,  but  they  do  not  transmit  or 
propagate  themselves.  Successive  generations 
must  teach  them  to  each  other.  But  the  ideas  of  the 
past  are  recast  in  a  mould  of  the  present.    Scarcely 


202  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

any  tiling  is  used  in  its  original  form.  We  have 
versions,  not  the  text.  Even  when  Tribonian  cod- 
ified the  writings  of  the  Roman  Jurisconsults, 
Justinian  directed  him  to  adapt  the  language  and 
principles  to  his  own  times.  We  use  the  past,  as 
we  do  steps,  to  mount  to  a  higher  light  in  the  pres- 
ent and  future.  This  mounting  needs  help;  and 
each  man,  era,  and  nation  needs  it  in  its  own  way. 
No  one  is  born  to  piety,  civilization,  or  learning. 
Each  must  be  taught  its  own. 

Buckle  says,  "Intellectual  activity  must  precede 
religious  improvement."  Mill  sa3'S,  "Mr.  Buckle 
fell  into  a  mistake  which  Comte  avoided,  that  of 
regarding  the  intellectual  as  the  only  progressive 
element  in  man,  and  the  moral  as  too  much  the 
same  at  all  times  to  affect  even  the  annual  average 
of  crime.  M.  Comte  shows,  on  the  contrary,  a 
most  acute  sense  of  the  causes  which  elevate  or 
lower  the  general  level  of  moral  excellence,  and 
deems  intellectual  progress  in  no  other  way  so 
beneficial  as  by  creating  a  standard  to  guide  the 
moral  sentiments  of  mankind,  and  a  mode  of  bring- 
ing those  sentiments  effectively  to  bear  on  con- 
duct."''   Mr.   Bagehot,''  combating  Mr.    Buckle's 

{a)   Mill's  Comte,  103. 

(/;)   i'liy.sios  and  Politics,  Iiitoi-iuitioiKil  Soicntilio  .Scries,  p.  11. 


buckle's  mistake.  203 

idea  that  intellectual  and  material  forces  have  been 
the  mainsprings  of  progress,  and  moral  causes 
secondary,  and,  in  comparison,  not  to  be  thought 
of,  says:  "On  the  contrary,  moral  causes  are  the 
first  here.  It  is  the  action  of  the  Avill  that  causes 
the  unconscious  habit;  it  is  the  continual  effort  of 
the  beginning  that  creates  the  hoarded  energy  of 
the  end;  it  is  the  silent  toil  of  the  first  generation 
that  becomes  the  transmitted  aptitude  of  the  next. 
Here,  physical  causes  do  not  create  the  moral,  but 
moral  create  the  physical;  here,  the  beginning  is 
by  the  higher  energy — the  conservation  and  propa- 
gation only  by  the  lower.  But  we  thus  perceive 
how  a  science  of  history  is  possible,  as  Mr.  Buckle 
said — a  science  to  teach  the  laws  of  tendencies — 
created  by  the  mind  and  transmitted  by  the  body, 
which  act  upon  and  incline  the  will  of  man  from 
age  to  age."  In  point  of  fact,  religious  instruction 
has  preceded  any  permanent  intellectual  advance. 
Keligion  has  been  the  librarian,  school-builder, 
and  schoolmaster  of  our  civilization.  Ulphilas 
penetrated  the  savage  wilderness  of  the  North,  and 
carried  religion,  a  translation  of  the  Bible,  and  all 
practicable  culture  to  the  Goths,  when  the  State 
could  not  control  society,  and  secular  learning  was 
closing  its   schools.     But  true  religion  and  true 


204  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

learning  are  different  sides  of  the  one  road  to  the 
Father.  They  mutually  help  each  other.  Exactly 
this  forerunning,  -which  Buckle  claims  for  intel- 
lectualism,  is  what  Christianity  has  done.  Like 
rays  of  light,  it  goes  out  in  every  direction  from  its 
great  centre,  and,  as  in  the  Reformation,  fires  the 
intellect,  moves  the  heart,  and  directs  the  energies 
of  man.  Eeligion  is  always  first.  Numa,  the 
Priest-King,  was  before  Servius,  the  Soldier-King. 
If  stoicism,  as  an  advance  upon  materialism, 
placed  the  basis  of  moral  conduct  upon  the  con- 
clusions of  universal  reason,  in  what  was  the 
moral  basis  of  conduct  according  to  Christianity 
an  improvement?  With  one  it  was  a  blind,  nec- 
essary, impersonal  authority;  with  the  other,  it 
was  the  personal  authority  of  One  infinite  in 
knowledge,  will,  power,  goodness,  and  holiness. 
With  one  it  was  Fate;  with  the  other  a  Father. 


LECTUKE  III. 

THE   UNITIES   OF   SYSTEMS. 

Wlieuce  do  all  things  come  ?  All  philosophers, 
ancient  and  modern,  whether  they  studied  force, 
the  elements,  substances,  relations,  methods  of 
development,  motions  or  durations,  they  each  and 
all  held  to  some  one  underlying  and  all-including 
unity — to  a  causa  causans.  Schelling  says:  "  Our 
minds  strive  after  unity  in  the  system  of  its 
knowledge;  it  will  not  endure  that  there  shall  be 
impressed  upon  it  a  separate  principle  for  single 
phenomenon,  and  it  will  only  believe  that  it  sees 
nature  Avhere  it  can  discover  the  greatest  sim- 
plicity of  laws  in  the  greatest  multiplicity  of  phe- 
nomena, and  the  highest  frugality  of  means  in 
the  highest  prodigality  of  effects."'^  Heraclitus 
said  that  "All  things  are  efficient  and  energetical 
only  in  their  harmony,  or  subjection  to  some 
central  principle  of  life.""    Auaximander  said  that 

(a)  Schwegler's  Hist.  Phil.  317. 

(b)  1  Maurice,  9G. 


206  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

"The  lufinite  is  the  origin  of  all  things."*  "Crea- 
tion is  the  decomposition  of  the  infinite.""  As 
every  ray  is  just  so  much  sun,  as  every  bay  is  just 
so  much  of  the  sea,  as  every  second  is  just  so 
much  of  eternity,  as  every  segment  is  just  so 
much  of  the  endless  circle,  so  all  phenomena  is 
just  so  many  manifestations  of  Infinity. 

The  Stoics  were  in  fact  Pantheists,  and  believed 
that  all  matter  is  divine,  and  all  divinity  matter. 
As  a  phrase  is  to  the  sentence,  so  is  man  to  God. 
If  man  were  not  man,  God  would  not  be  God. 
God  is  the  whole,  and  all  things  are  parts.  The 
parts  must  be,  for  the  whole  to  be.  The  Stoic's 
nature  was  God,  and  to  live  according  to  God  was 
to  live  according  to  nature." 

The  correlative  of  unity  is  plurality;  and  the 
correlative  of  plurality  is  unity.  We  can  not  con- 
ceive of  one  without  the  other;  and  so  one  is  as 
necessary  to  our  thought  as  the  other.     If   both 

(a)  Lewes,  12. 
(6)  Id.  13. 

(c)  *'  Universale,  nnum  est  actu,  miilfa  2wtentia :"  The  universal 
is  one  actually,  hut  many  potentially.  (Jiniie  jiriticiphim  est 
uninn:  Every  principle  is  one.  Ab  uiio  noii  nisi  nnum:  Hill's  El. 
of   I'lii.  1(11,  notes. 

I'ope  says  that  the  Infinite 

"  Lives  through  all  life,  extends  throuL,'Ii  all  extent, 
S[)r<_-ad.s  uiidividcd,  and  oitcrattw  unyiicnt." 


ALL   NATURE   OxNE.  207 

are  necessary  to  our  thought,  theu  to  our  thought 
both  necessarily  exist.  We  have  the  idea  of  one 
because  we  compare  it  with  the  idea  of  many; 
and  we  have  the  idea  of  many  because  we  com- 
pare it  with  the  idea  of  one.  Schlegel  would  make 
them  identical.  Hegel  would  make  them  a  rela- 
tion ever  becoming;  but  may  we  not  make  them 
distinct  and  successive,  necessary  to  each  other — 
the  existence  of  each  a  cause  of  the  existence  of 
the  other.  Hegel  held  that  unity  was  everywhere 
found  under  contradiction,  and  identity  under 
difference.  Infinite  unity  is  Spinoza's  infinite  sub- 
stance, Fichte's  infinite  subject,  Schelling's  infi- 
nite MIND,  and  Hegel's  infinite  thinking. 

The  unity  of  law  now  sought,  is  proved  in  the 
unity  of  nature.  The  very  word  "nature"  admits 
a  uniting  principle  in  the  sum  total  of  everything. 
The  word  "matter"  generalizes  the  ideas  of  im- 
penetrability, extension,  divisibility,  inertia,  and 
weight.  The  word  "universe"  ties  all  things  to- 
gether in  one  system  of  principles  and  phenomena. 

1.    TAKE,  FIRST,  THE  UNIVEKSAL  TIE  IN  THE  SOLAR  SYSTEM. 

The  bond,  or  centrality  of  all  matter  first  sug- 
gested by  Pythagoras,  re-asserted  by  Copernicus, 
in  the  sun-centre  theory  of  the  world,  was  estab- 


208  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

lislied  by  Kepler  in  his  three  hiws — the  elliptical 
movement  of  the  planets,  their  description  of 
equal  areas  about  their  centie  in  equal  times,  the 
periodicity  of  their  times  proportional  to  the 
squares  of  their  distances;  and  by  the  one  law  of 
Newtou,  that  attraction  varies  inversely  as  the 
square  of  the  distance.  From  that  moment  man 
saw  how  the  many  were  one.  The  Universe  ap- 
peared. 

However  much,  from  a  conceivable  centre,  the 
outlook  is  plurality,  there  is  no  denying  that  at 
the  circumference  the  inlook  is  uuity.  Upon  such 
generalizations  are  constructed  all  schemes  of  ma- 
terial and  moral  philosophy. 

According  to  the  theory  of  material  science,  as 
now  held,  the  sun,  as  the  first  representative  of 
material  unity,  by  its  heat,  expelled  from  itself 
immeasurable  volumes  of  ether  into  the  colder 
regions  of  outer  space.  There  this  ether  Avas  con- 
densed, and,  by  the  motion  origiually  imparted  to 
it  by  the  sun,  or  the  one  poAver  or  origin  superior 
to  and  including  the  sun,  Avhatever  it  may  be,  Avas 
rolled  up  into  Avorlds,  and  by  force  of  the  same 
centrifugal  motion,  modified  by  the  centripetalism 
of  gravitation,  began  to  move  round  orbits  pecul- 
iar to  each.     As  condensation  increased,  gravita- 


IMPERSONAL   NATURE.  209 

tion  and  resistancG  increased,  diminishing  both 
revohition  along  its  orbit  and  rotation  on  its  axis, 
gradually  drawing  each  orb  back  into  the  sun. 
Here,  from  the  unity  of  the  sun  or  Avhatever  is 
one,  if  that  is  not  the  origin  of  things,  goes  out 
the  plurality  of  the  worlds,  and  now  the  plurality  of 
Avorlds  draw  back  into  the  unity  of  the  sun.^  The 
materialistic  philosophy  of  the  early  schools  so  mo- 
nopolized the  minds  of  the  philosophers  at  first, 
that  the  moral  or  law-side  of  conduct  was  lost 
sight  of  until  the  time  of  Socrates.  But  whether 
the  origin  of  things  with  them  wafj  water,  earth, 
fire,  air,  or  motion,  each  and  all  held  to  an  ulti- 
mate unity  of  some  kind.  There  was  but  one 
origin,  not  two,  whatever  that  one  was,  and  one 
motion,  and  that  was  the  harmony  of  elliptical  or- 
bits.    Look  further  at 

2.     IMPEKSONAL  NATURE. 

This  is  either  inorganic  or  organic.  There  is 
unity  in  organic  nature.  The  higher  is  not  with- 
out the  lower.  The  tree  is  only  the  upper  end  of 
its  hidden  roots.  The  inorganic  mineral  enters 
into  the  organic  vegetable  and  animal.  There  is 
no  chasm.     "Yet  minerals  are  not  vegetables,  veg- 

(«)  Darwinism  and  Design,  by  St.  Clair,  p.  21. 


210  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

etables  are  not  animals,  animals  are  not  men;  but 
men,  animals,  and  vegetables  are  all  organized  and 
living  beings.  They  are  distinguished  from  min- 
erals which  are  neither  one  nor  the  other,  by  cer- 
tain general  facts  common  to  all.'"^  All  organized 
beings  have  a  limited  duration;  all  are  born  small 
and  feeble;  during  part  of  their  existence,  all  grow 
and  strengthen,  then  decrease  in  energy  and 
vitality,  sometimes  also  in  size;  finally  all  die. 
Throughout  life,  all  organized  and  living  beings 
need  nourishment.  Before  death,  all  species  re- 
produce their  kind  by  a  seed  or  an  egg,  and  this  is 
true  even  of  those  which  seem  to  come  directly 
from  a  bud,  from  a  layer,  from  a  graft;  for  from 
bud  to  bud,  from  layer  to  layer,  from  graft  to  graft, 
we  can  rise  to  the  seed  and  the  egg.  Finally,  all 
organized  and  living  things  had  a  father  and  a 
mother. 

"These  grand  phenomena,  common  to  all  living 
things,  and  consequently  to  man,  imply  general 
laws  which  control  them,  and  which  must  govern 
man  as  well  as  the  plant.  It  is  thus  seen  that  man 
and  the  lowest  insect,  the  kings  of  the  earth  and 
the  lowest  mosses,  are  so  linked  together  that  the 
entire  living  world  forms  but  one  Avhole,  all  the 


{11}  (^>ii;iLrcf;i;^'i..s  (111  N;il.   Hist,  of  M;iii,   Luct.   1. 


PERSONAL  NATURE.  211 

parts  of  wlncli  harmonize  in  the  closest  mutual  de- 
pemleiice." 

Science  can  be  systematic  because  Nature  is 
systematic.  The  force  of  gravitation  varies  in- 
versely as  the  square  of  the  distance.  Both  heat 
and  light  are  polarized.  Heat,  light  and  sound 
are  alike  refrangible.  The  unvarying  law  of  grav- 
itation shows  that  there  is  some  uniting  principle 
in  all  forms  of  matter.  Things  are  not  in  discord, 
but  concord,  and  are  therefore  ultimately  one. 
Darwin  says :  "The  structure  of  every  organic  being 
is  related,  in  the  most  essential  yet  often  hidden 
manner,  to  that  of  all  other  organic  beings,  with 
which  it  comes  in  competition  for  food  or  resi- 
dence, or  from  Avhich  it  has  to  escape,  or  on  which 
it  preys.  "^ 

3.    PERSONAL  NATURE. 

There  is  a  unity  in  all  the  species  of  the  human 
race.  They  have  the  sameness  of  form  and  func- 
tion, a  radical  unity  of  language,  an  identity  of 
intellectual  processes,  and  a  unity  of  religious 
feeling  and  moral  sense.  The  race  is  universally 
thought  of  and  spoken  of  as  the  human  family. 
The  unity  of  the  human  race  is  agreed  upon  by 
nearly  all. 

(rt)  Origin  of  Species,  Ch.  III. 


212  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

Prof.  Quatrefages,  of  Paris,  remarked  to  his 
class  upon  tlie  subject  of  the  unity  of  the  human 
race:  "Our  experience  is  to-day  as  complete  as 
possible.  Unless  we  deny  all  modern  science, 
unless  we  make  man  a  solitary  exception  in  the 
midst  of  organic  and  living  beings,  we  must  admit 
that  all  men  form  only  one  and  the  same  species, 
composed  of  a  certain  number  of  different  races; 
we  must,  therefore,  admit  that  all  men  may  be  con- 
sidered as  descended  from  a  single  primitive  pair. 
We  have  reached  this  conclusion  outside  of  all 
species  of  dogmatic  or  theological  discussion, 
outside  of  all  species  of  philosophical  or  meta- 
physical consideration.  Observation  and  experi- 
ment alone,  applied  to  the  animal  and  vegetable 
kingdom;  science,  in  a  word,  leads  us  logically  to 
this  conclusion:  tliere  exists  but  one  species  of  men. ''^ 
"The  various  races  have  descended  from  one 
original  stock.  Wherever  we  look,  man  is  the 
same."**  "We  recognize,"  says  Agassiz,  "the  fact 
of  the  unity  of  mankind."''  "All  human  races  are 
of  one  species  and  one  family."'' 

('()  (Jiiatrefagos' Lectures  on  M;iii,  Lect.  L 

(h)  Dr.  Draper,  as  ([uoted  hy  Dr.  Cahell,  in  liis  work  on  tlic 
Unity  of  jSIankind,  pages  140,  154. 

(c)  Cal)ell,  158. 

('/)  I'ricliard  on  tiie  Natural  Hist,  of  IMan,  545;  Djiiwin  on  Ori- 
gin of  Species,  eii.  vi;  llerl)ert  Spencer,  I  vol.  Iliology,  cli.  viii; 
(Juitou  on  lieieditary  (Jeuius,  lUiS  '.(. 


NATIONAL   UNITY.  213 

4.   THE  UNITY  OF  SOCIAL  FORCE. 

It  is  a  basis  of  classification  for  things  to  assert 
themselves,  upon  the  principle  of  like  to  like. 
Hornogenity  is  unity,  and  heterogenity  is  diversity. 
No  known  power  does  or  can  keep  the  former 
apart,  or  the  latter  together.  Similar  things  ceu- 
tripetalize,  and  dissimilar  things  centrifugalize; 
and  both  are  united  in  the  compound  force  of  cir- 
cular, or  rather  elliptical,  motion. 

Political  groups  are  held  together  by  force,  sym- 
pathy, or  interest.  All  enforced  co-operation  must 
result  in  assimilation,  like  the  unification  of  the 
scattered  Teutonic  or  Celtic  tribes,  speaking  the 
same  radical  language,  and  living  in  coterminous 
localities;  or  it  must  produce  ultimate  disruption, 
like  the  dismemberment  of  the  dissimilar  races, 
upon  the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman  empire  first, 
and  afterwards  of  the  empire  of  Charlemagne. 
Force  is  a  mechanical  link  only;  interest  is  tran- 
sient and  conventional;  sympathy  alone  is  natural 
and  enduring.     But  this  is  hourly  a  wider  bond. 

Intercommunication  by  locomotion,  and  electric 
or  phonetic  message,  must  consolidate  the  social 
and  political  world.  Everything  is  centralizing. 
Ocean  steamers  are  making  all  nations  neighbors. 
Telegraphic  wires,  like  nerves  of  the  body,  unite 


214  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

all  the  limbs  in  one  service.  The  nations  of  the 
world  are  knowing  more  of  each  other,  interests 
are  more  international,  prejudices  must  give  way 
to  acquaintance,  national  boundaries  are  more  and 
more  indistinct,  international  unity  of  coins, 
weights  and  measures,  international  postal  systems, 
international  tolerations  of  religions,  interchanges 
of  agricultural  implements,  international  exposi- 
tions tliat  are  the  bazaars  of  the  world,  the  tem- 
ples of  national  unity  and  secular  civilization;  all 
these  and  more  show  the  mighty  law  at  work. 
Men  do  not  always  see  or  intend  the  full  results  of 
the  great  things  they  do.  It  is  not  likely  that 
Fulton  or  Morse  anticipated  the  unification  of  all 
the  nations  and  families  of  the  world;  but  it  will 
be  done  by  their  work. 

The  forces  of  nature  have  become  indirectly 
mighty  unitizers  and  civilizers.  The  application 
of  steam  to  navigation  and  electricity  to  communi- 
cation will  largely  decentralize  the  cities,  dena- 
tionalize the  nations,  and  make  the  whole  world 
one  country.  Steam  ferries  have  been  established 
between  the  hemispheres,  and  railways,  like  webs, 
cover  the  continents.  Electricity  has  become  a 
postal  courier,  and  counts  time  and  space  as  less 


NATIONAL  UNITY.  215 

than  nothing.  We  put  palaces  on  wheels  and  hotels 
on  the  waves,  and  speed  over  oceans,  hills,  and 
rivers,  and  deserts,  as  a  pastime  revelry.  Steam, 
like  a  great  giant,  has  tunneled  the  mountains,  filled 
valleys,  and  channeled  plains  with  prodigious 
strength.  This  mighty  worker  has  laid  his  hand 
upon  every  altar  of  religion,  and  commanded 
serving  priests  to  compare  and  purge  their  creeds. 
Foreigners  are  meeting  as  never  before;  ideas, 
customs  and  worships  are  brought  into  one  light; 
toleration  follows  acquaintance;  and  what  is  false 
will  be  dropped,  and  what  is  true  will  abide,  sure 
and  comforting,  in  the  universal  reason  of  the  one 
family  of  earth.  Commerce  will  give  a  common 
interest.  Money  knows  no  national  boundaries, 
creeds  or  speech.  Strange  nations  are  bringing 
their  good  and  their  bad  together,  at  first  to  hate 
eacli  other;  then  to  laugh  at  each  other,  and  then, 
except  as  with  the  negro,  to  wed  each  other.  Each 
nationality  has  its  detestable  peculiarities,  but 
each,  in  the  end,  absorbs  something  good  from 
his  foreign  neighbor,  and  brings  himself  and 
nation  to  an  average  of  human  improvement.  No 
man  is  jealous  of  his  brother,  and  steam  and 
electricity  are  making  all  nations  such.  Even  this 
continent  belongs,  it  is  said,  to  all  nations,  with- 


216  THE   UNITY   OF  LAW. 

out  respect  of  persons.  Every  nation  has  made 
its  contribution  to  what  we  call  its  civilization. 
Thousands  of  years  ago  China  and  Egypt  kept  the 
record  of  the  stars  by  which  we  sail  our  ships. 
No  one  race  or  era  can  say  that  progress  is  all 
its  own.  If  Montgomery  from  Ireland,  fought 
for  American  Independence,  so  did  Steuben  and 
De  Kalb  from  Germany,  and  Lafayette,  Count 
Destaing  and  others  from  France,  Pulaski  and 
Kosciusko  from  Poland,  and  Paul  Jones  from 
Scotland.  Champions  offered  themselves  from  all 
the  world,  and  we  were  launched  upon  our  own 
career.  Almost  all  nations  claim  to  have  helped, 
and  so  all  here  have  been  made  at  home,  where 
none  are  strangers. 

This  law  of  centralization  is  further  seen  in  the 
inevitable  aggregation  of  capital  and  combination 
of  energy.  The  works  required  in  this  day  are  so 
colossal  that  the  capital  of  no  individual  citizen  is 
adequate.  The  extension  of  long  and  huge  canals, 
the  interoceanic  lines  of  railways,  the  irrigation 
of  broad  territories  of  arid  desert  lands,  the  great 
aqueducts  for  vast  cities,  the  millions  expended  to 
light  them,  requires  either  despotism  for  taxes  or 
unprecedented  combinations  of  individual  inter- 
ests and  cai)ital  to  build  them.     No  unaided  man 


ALL   CAUSES  ONE.  217 

or  fortune  is  equal  to  the  day.  One  man  is  noth- 
ing. His  individual  importance  has  been  lost. 
In  every  direction  the  centres  of  civilization  are 
fewer,  aggregations  more  extended,  and  power 
more  intensified.  The  individual  once  had  the 
energy  of  individual  force,  and  sought  success  by 
pushing  himself;  now  he  is  hopeless  of  success  ex- 
cept as  he  makes  others  push  him.  Power  is  now 
in  combination.  The  pendulum  of  events  swings 
backward  and  forward,  and  effectiveness  returns 
from  the  uncombined  many  to  the  combined  few, 

ebbing  and  flowing  in  the  lapse  of  the  ages. 
i 

i.  THE  UNITY  OF  CAUSATION. 

As  one  is  before  two,  so  one  cause  is  before  two 
causes.  The  idea  is  before  the  reality,  the  archi- 
tect before  the  plan,  and  the  plan  before  the 
structure.  J.  S.  Mill  says:  "It  is  a  universal 
truth  that  every  fact  which  has  a  beginning,  has  a 
cause."''  "The  plurality  of  causes,"  says  Bain, 
"  is  more  an  incident  of  imperfect  knowledge  than 
a  fact  in  the  nature  of  things.  As  knowledge  ex- 
tends, we  find  less  plurality.  The  numerous  ap- 
parent causes  for  motion,  are  different  only  in 
superficial  appearance.  They  are  all  one  at  the 
bottom."" 

(a)  Logic,  Bk.  III.,  CIi.  5.  (b)  Bain's  Logio,  247. 


218 


THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 


MORAL   UNITY.  219 

Causes  are  either  efficient  or  physical.  Efficient 
cause  is  that  which  makes  all  other  causes  to  be 
causes.  In  fact,  it  is  no  cause,  but  the  originator 
of  cause.  To  say  that  it  is  unknowable  does  not 
satisfy  the  mind  or  stop  inquiry.  Human  thought 
irresistibly  goes  back  and  back,  as  long  as  a  chain 
of  causation  can  be  traced,  and  when  it  confronts 
the  incomprehensible  infinity,  it  stops  in  the  pres- 
ence of  a  plenitude  of  intelligence  and  power. 
This  infinity  has  ever  been  sought,  and  behind  its 
mystery  is  at  once  the  womb  and  the  goal  of  hu- 
manity. As  nothing  can  produce  nothing,  cause 
must  be  something,  for  from  it  came  the  universe. 
It  is  something;  and  one  infinite  something  pro- 
ducing a  plurality  of  finite  somethings.  It  is  that 
unity  of  efficiency  that  lies  back  of  all  phenomenal 
conditions,  however  numerous  and  entangled.  It 
is  the  weaver  of  the  web.  It  is;  whether  it  an- 
swers your  questions  or  not.  Whatever  it  is,  it 
has  a  unity  of  will,  power  and  knowledge.  It  is 
absolutely  One,  and  this  is  Infinite  Being,  for 
BEING  is  the  only  Indivisible  Unity. . 

5.   MORAL  UNITY. 

The  highest  conceivable  power  is  that  of  pre- 
scribing the  law  of  right  conduct  to  intelligent 
beings.     Either  there  is  no  such  thing  as  moral 


220  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

right,  or  its  law  is  the  highest.  The  legislator 
must  know  not  only  what  is  right  for  the  individual 
in  himself,  but  also  Avhat  is  right  in  all  his  rela- 
tions, of  all  persons,  of  all  nations,  and  of  all  time. 
What  is  right  is  right.  "  There  is  no  tribe  so  rude 
as  to  be  witliout  a  faint  perception  of  a  difference 
between  right  and  Avrong.  There  is  no  subject  on 
which  men  of  all  ages  and  nations  coincide  on  so 
many  points  as  in  the  general  rules  of  conduct, 
and  in  the  qualities  of  human  character  which  de- 
serve esteem.""*  And  even  Hume  says:  "The 
principles  upon  which  men  reason  in  morals  are 
always  the  same,  however  different  the  conclu- 
sions." Sir  James  Mackintosh  further  says:  "Law- 
givers and  statesmen,  but  above  all,  moralists  and 
political  philosophers,  may  plainly  discover  in  all 
the  useful  and  beautiful  variety  of  governments 
and  institutions,  and  under  all  the  fantastic  multi- 
tude of  usages  and  rites  which  have  prevailed 
among  men,  the  same  fundamental,  comprehensive 
truths,  the  sacred  master-principles,  which  are  the 
guardians  of  human  society,  recognized  and  re- 
vered, with  few  slight  exceptions,  by  every  nation 
u[)on  earth." 

As  the  harmony  of  matter,  from  atoms  to  spheres, 


{a)  MackiiitoHli   Ilia.  M.  I'hi.  sec.  1. 


WHERE  IS  THE   MORAL   CENTRE.  221 

implies  unity,  motion,  and  centralization  of  power, 
so  the  harmony  of  human  conduct,  both  individual 
and  social,  implies  the  unity  of  purpose  and  cen- 
tralization of  moral  law.  Where  is  the  centre  of 
centres  of  both  matter  and  morality?  Does  the 
centre  of  morality  and  matter  coincide,  or  are  they 
different  ?  If  they  differ,  then  there  are  two  uni- 
verses, which  is  impossible;  and  if  they  coincide, 
the}'  are  the  same,  which  is  final  and  absolute 
unity.  Eight  human  conduct  refers  its  action  to 
one  will,  as  the  harmonious  movement  of  matter 
seeks  one  centre. 

There  cannot  be  two  authorities;  an  authority 
of  the  whole,  and  another  conflicting  authority  of 
the  parts.  As  the  greater  includes  the  less,  as  the 
whole  is  the  sum  of  all  its  parts,  so  the  universal 
is  the  summation  of  the  special.  Everything  has 
a  centre.  What  is  the  centre  of  law  ?  The  centre 
of  law  and  the  universe  are  the  same. 

In  matter  we  see  a  line  of  law  run  to  each  atom, 
then  to  each  molecule  of  atoms,  and  then  to  each 
mass  of  molecules;  and  all  lines  to  be  tied  at  one 
unknown  point,  or  rather  gathered  into  one  hand. 

The  great  question  has  ever  been,  where  is  the 
one  moral  centre?  Is  it  ivithui  man,  as  Ave  have 
seen  that  Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Epicurus 


222  THE  UNITY  OF   LAW. 

taught?  or  not  in  man,  as  Zeno,  Buddha  and  Christ 
taught?  If  in  man,  is  that  centre  in  his  knowledge, 
as  Socrates  and  Phito  taught;  or  in  a  golden  mean 
of  virtuous  hah'its,  as  Aristotle  taught;  or  in  indi- 
vidual Jiappiness  as  Epicurus  taught?  If  not  in 
man,  is  the  moral  centre  in  an  impersonal  order  of 
nature,  making  minor  distinctions  between  man 
and  man  insignificant,  as  Zeno  taught?  or  is  it  in  a 
superhuman  and  supernatural  personality,  as 
Moses  and  Christ  taught?  But  are  not  all  these 
philosophies  true  in  part,  and  all  that  are  mere 
philosophies,  not  true  in  part?  Is  the  centrality 
of  the  individual  atom  exclusive  of,  or  incompat- 
ible with,  the  centrality  of  the  molecule  and  the 
mass?  The  universe  is  the  centralization  of  cen- 
tres. It  is  this  centre  of  centres  that  all  philos- 
ophers have  ever  sought. 

Law  of  conduct  has  its  centre  in  the  nexus  of 
the  relations  of  society,  and  implies  a  moral  unity 
of  all  its  members  through  all  their  relations. 
Without  confining  itself  to  any  speculative  theory 
of  moralit}',  it  passes  upon  the  morality  of  each 
case  as  it  arises.  Its  adjudications  are  concrete, 
not  abstract.  The  morality  of  each  case  is  in  the 
case  itself,  and  cannot  be  anticipated.  Hence  the 
invalidiiy  of  ohiter  dicta  of  the  courts.     All  that 


THE  MORALISTS.  223 

the  abstract  morality  of  maxims  can  do,  is  to 
so  educate  the  miiid  that  it  will  be  sensitive  to  de- 
tect its  concrete  presence. 

The  materialists  showed  that  all  plurality  ends 
in  unity.  Do  not  the  moralists  show  the  same? 
Is  conduct  without  law '?  If  not,  must  not  that  hiw 
have  a  central  authority?  As  it  is  so  related  to 
matter,  must  there  not  be  some  intimate  essen- 
tial unity  between  the  laws  of  each  ?  If  there 
be  evolution,  correlation  and  ceutripetalism  in 
matter,  could  morality  have  a  different  method 
without  utter  confusion  of  all  life?  And  if  this 
were  so,  would  not  matter  be  moving  on  the 
fixed  lines  or  method  we  have  named,  and  would 
not  morality  move  upon  any  other,  as  it  might 
happen?  If  the  method  of  matter  and  morality  do 
not  coincide,  wherein  do  they  differ?  There  must 
be  unity  or  diversity.  If  there  be  unity,  all  is 
harmony,  as  we  seek  to  show;  if  there  be  diversit}', 
as  we  deny,  all  would  be  discord.  Mind  and  mat- 
ter must  and  do  agree. 

When  speculation  wearied  of  the  attempt  to 
solve  the  mystery  of  matter,  there  arose  a  succes- 
sion of-  great  moral  teachers.  But  from  Socrates 
down,  each  master  held  that  there  was  but  one 
authority  in  morality,  however  much,  as  in   the 


224  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

case  of  the  origin  of  matter,  tliey  differed  as  to 
wLat  that  oue  authority  was.  After  all  the  light 
of  the  past,  do  we  say  that  there  are  more  thau 
one?  If  there  is  but  oue  authority,  we  repeat  their 
old  question,  and  ask  what  is  that  one? 

Law  is  disclosed  by  resistance,  whether  the  re- 
sistance be  voluntary  or  involuntary.  Anarchy 
has  no  place  or  toleration  in  the  nature  of  things. 
If  there  be  no  persuasive  force  to  right  conduct, 
wrong  conduct  must  be  resisted  by  repressive 
force.  Conduct  must  centre  upon  some  one  prin- 
ciple, human  or  superhuman.  No  theory  of  morals 
is  all  true  or  all  false.  Truths  supplement  each 
other,  like  colors  in  a  ray  of  light.  That  must  be 
held  to  be  the  true  basis  or  centre  of  moral  life 
which  best  accounts  for  most  of  the  best  known 
moral  phenomena.  But  each  and  all  theories  of 
morals,  like  converging  facts,  lead  to  one  end. 

In  the  first  lecture  of  this  course  it  was  held 
that  all  unity  tended  to  plurality,  as,  for  example, 
the  transformation  of  the  homogeneous  into  the 
heterogeneous.  We  stood  at  the  centre  and 
looked  towards  the  circumference.  Now  we  re- 
verso  the  vision,  and  stand  at  the  circumference 
and  l(Kjk  towards  the  centre,  to  see  all  plurality 
end    in    unity.     The  tendency  of  the   one  to  the 


ALL   FOKCES   ARE   ONE.  225 

many,  and  of  the  many  to  tlio  one,  is  seen  all 
throngli  nature.  Eveiytliiug  original  seeks  to 
give  itself  away  to  everything  derived.  The  root 
of  the  tree  will  not  keep  itself  all  root,  but  gives 
something  of  itself  to  trunk,  and  the  trunk  gives 
something  of  itself  to  branches,  and  the  branches 
give  something  of  themselves  to  leaves  and  to 
seeds.  The  one  grain  of  wheat  gives  itself  to 
scores  of  other  grains.  The  life  in  it,  like  a 
traveler,  has  a  new  lodging-place  every  night. 
The  mists  exhaled  by  the  one  sea  come  back  to  it 
again  in  the  many  rivers.  The  countless  tones 
from  the  chords  of  nature's  vast  harp  symphonize 
in  one  mighty  hymn.  The  units  of  atoms,  mole- 
cules, and  stellar  orbs  that  wheel  into  system,  have 
one  obedience. 

We  have  said  that  there  can  not  be  two  authori- 
ties. All  forces  must  be  as  one.  Nature  ever 
keeps  the  peace  among  her  phenomena,  through 
their  homogeneity,  and  over  all  diversities,  she 
lierself  presides  as  absolute  unity. 

That  Avhich  diverges  also  converges.  You  can 
not  have  the  distinction  of  individuals  without 
the  unity  of  the  species,  nor  the  differences  of 
species  Avithout  the  higher  unity  of  the  genus. 
One  can  not  be  without  the  other.     As  a  whole 


226  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

implies  and  includes  the  parts,  and  as  all  parts 
imply  and  are  tlie  whole,  so  the  universal  reason 
implies  the  individual  reason,  and  the  individ- 
ual reason  is  the  universal  reason,  or  it  is  no 
reason.  Whatever  is  moral  is  universal.  When 
conduct  finds  its  reason  apart  from  the  universal 
reason,  it  is  not  moral  conduct.  It  is  the  rebel- 
lion of  a  part  against  the  whole,  and  so  against 
itself.  Anything  makes  the  most  of  itself  when 
it  makes  itself  a  part  of  what  is  above  itself. 
Therefore  the  human  reason  is  most  human  Avhen 
it  is  most  superhuman;  just  as  the  root  of  a  tree  is 
most  a  root  as  it  extends  itself  up  into  branches, 
leaves  and  seed.  What  we  call  a  root  and  a  tree 
are  not  two  things,  but  one;  so  reason  is  not  two 
as  universal  reason  and  as  human  reason.  Though 
universal  reason  may  act  as  special  reason,  special 
reason  must  be  one  with  universal  reason,  to  be 
any  reason  at  all;  for,  while  a  part  can  not  be  the 
whole,  of  the  whole  there  may  be  a  part.  And  as 
a  ])art  is  nothing  unless  it  is  of  a  whole,  so  special 
reason  is  no  reason  unless  it  be  complete  in  uni- 
versal reason.  In  other  words,  reason,  to  be 
reason  in  its  ultimate  sense,  must  be  universal. 

The  word  "  universal"  is  a  condensed  induction. 
It  is  one  common  to  all.     The  whole  covers  each, 


PLURALITY   AND   UNITY.  227 

and  each  thing  is  related  to  every  other.  We  do 
not  knoAv  things  apart  from  their  rehitions.  As 
these  relations  are  universal,  so  the  reason  that 
regulates  them  must  be  universal.  Morality  is 
conduct  as  appointed  by  universal  reason,  or  the 
extension  of  one  all-embracing  principle  of  right- 
ness  to  individual  life,  and  this  is  law. 

Convergence  and  divergence  are  but  opposite 
extremes  of  the  same  line.  The  arrow  is  pointed 
at  both  ends.  It  is  evident  that  centripetalism  or 
some  uniting  principle  is  universal,  to  both  matter 
and  morality.  Though  for  two  thousand  years, 
from  Pythagoras  to  Copernicus,  science  ignorantly 
centred  this  system  of  worlds  in  the  earth,  and 
though  we  now  know  that  it  is  in  the  sun,  still  all 
minds  knew  that  there  was  a  centre  of  some  kind 
and  somewhere.  So  in  morality,  one  mind  searches 
for  the  centre  in  one  direction  and  another  in 
other  directions,  yet  no  one  doubts  that  there  is 
for  conduct  some  one  supreme  moral  centre.  The 
roads  may  be  many,  but  the  end  is  one.  Semper, 
uhique,  omnibus.  It  is  a  universal  principle  that 
plurality  implies  and  ever  tends  to  unity.  If  matter 
and  morality  are  each  a  force,  these  forces  work  as 
one.  If  matter  has  many  elements,  these  elements 
find  themselves,  like  parallel  lines,  meeting  in  in- 


228  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

finity.  The  same  is  the  fact  in  morality.  If  the 
two,  matter  and  morality,  liave  each  their  own 
centre,  their  centres  coincide  or  are  one  and  the 
same,  for  there  is  hut  one  uvifi/.  There  is  a  centre 
of  centres.  Derivation  implies  unity.  Creation 
implies  unity.  Plurality  implies  unity.  Unity 
can  be  nothing  but  unit}'.  If  we  are  at  unity  the 
outlook  is  plurality;  if  we  are  amidst  plurality,  the 
inlook  is  unity. 

No  one  man  has  any  natural,  absolute  right  to 
govern  another  man,  nor  has  any  man  with  insep- 
arable relations  to  all  other  men,  any  natural,  ab- 
solute right  to  govern  himself  in  those  relations. 
All  related  must  govern  each  one  related.  As 
the  whole  governs  each,  so  each  governs  himself 
through  the  Avhole.  The  many  govern  the  one, 
and  that  one  is  one  of  the  many.  Each  atom,  mass 
of  atoms,  accepts  within  itself,  and  each  man  ac- 
cepts within  himself,  a  control  necessarily  from 
without.  All  centres  are  strung  on  one  string  of 
law,  and  therefore  themselves  have  one  centre. 

It  is  clear  that  the  governing  power  is  responsi- 
ble primarily  only  to  itself.  This,  no  one  private 
citizen  can  be,  for  ho  is  responsible  to  all  others 
than  himself.  All  must  govern,  or  none  can  gov- 
ern.    "Every  commandment  in  a  civil  society  pri- 


burke's  opinion.  229 

marilj  flows  from  the  totality  of  its  members — 
from  the  public."'''  "The  sovereign  power  consists 
in  the  collective  will,  and  in  the  faculty  of  willing 
and  disposing  those  forces  which  obey  that  will. 
This  sovereign  power  should  be  disposed  of  as  in- 
divisible in  its  nature,  and  as  appertaining  to  the 
totality  of  the  members  of  the  body  politic — to 
the  entire  people."'' 

So  far  as  each  governs  himself  in  his  rela- 
tions, he  must  govern  through  the  whole  or  total 
power  of  the  public.  Burke,  in  his  speech  in  the 
trial  of  Warren  Hastings,  says:  "No  man  can 
lawfully  govern  himself  according  to  bis  own  will; 
much  less  can  one  person  be  governed  by  the  will 
of  another.  We  are  all  born  in  subjection,  all 
born  equally,  high  and  low,  governors  and  gov- 
erned, in  subjection  to  one  great,  immutable,  pre- 
existeut  law,  prior  to  all  our  devices,  and  prior  to 
all  our  contrivances,  paramount  to  all  our  ideas 
and  all  our  sensations,  antecedent  to  our  very  ex- 
istence, by  which  we  are  all  knit  and  connected  in 
the  eternal  frame  of  the  universe,  out  of  which  we 
can  not  stir.  This  great  law  does  not  arise  from 
our  conventions  and  compacts;  on  the  contraiy,  it 

(a)  Pomeroy  on  Constitutional  Law,  Intro,  sec.  4. 
(I>)    Id.,  sec.  7. 


230  THE   UNITY   OF   LAW. 

gives  to  our  conventions  and  compacts  all  the 
force  and  sanction  tliey  can  have."  This  is  the 
unit}''  we  have  been  seeking  in  the  light  of  reason, 
rather  than  by  the  authority  of  Avritten  revelation. 
Henceforth  we  may  consider  the  two  authorities 
as  one,  and,  so  far  as  they  concur,  as  the  expres- 
sion of  one  will. 

6.  THE  UNITY  OF  INTELLIGENCE. 

The  perfection  of  intelligence  is  inversely  as  the 
number  of  individuals  possessing  it.  It  is  like  a 
pyramid  of  stars  surmounted  by  the  sun,  with 
numbers  increasing  towards  the  bottom  and  with 
glory  increasing  towards  the  top.  Kegarding 
will  as  law,  we  find  it  varying  in  the  force  of 
gravitation  of  matter,  inversely  as  the  square  of 
tiie  distance.  This  mutual  law  of  atoms  is  more 
as  they  are  together,  and  less  as  they  are  apart. 
The  smaller  the  material  lumps,  the  more  are 
their  numbers,  and  the  less  is  their  power;  and 
conversely,  the  larger  the  lumps,  the  fewer  are 
their  numbers,  and  the  greater  is  their  power. 
The  law  is  one,  but  varies  inversely  as  to  num- 
bers, but  directly  as  to  size.  Gravitation  is  a 
mode  of  Mind  in  matter;  but  does  not  that  Mind 
exhibit  its  power,  in  the  same  way,  in  the  culmi- 
nating kingdoms  of  animal  life? 


INSTINCTIVE   INTELLIGENCE.  231 

In  physiology,  the  classes  of  animals  are :  First. 
Rncliata,  with  parts  arranged  around  a  vertical 
axis:  as  sea-urchins,  starfish,  sea-anemones,  and 
corals;  second,  Mollusca:  as  muscles,  oysters, 
snails,  clams,  and  cuttle-fishes;  third,  Articulata, 
comprising  all  animals  whose  bodies  are  made  up 
of  similar  rings:  as  worms,  crabs,  and  all  insects; 
and,  fourth,  Vertebrata,  including  all  animals  hav- 
ing a  backbone,  such  as  man,  monkeys,  whales, 
bats,  birds,  reptiles,  bactrians,  and  fish.  The 
number  of  species  of  animals  is  not  known,  but 
may  safely  be  estimated  as  a  million  or  more,  of 
which  the  small  and  microscopic  comprise  an 
immense  majority.^  It  is  in  mental  physiology 
that  we  see  the  perfection  of  intelligence  to  be 
inversely  as  the  number  of  individuals  possessing 
it.  Animal  life  is  scaled  by  intelligence,  either  in- 
stinctive or  reflective. 

(a)  Iiistuidive  intelligence,  if  intelligence  it  can 
be  called,  is  necessary  intelligence;  a  uniform  and 
unprompted  tendency  to  do  a  certain  thing;  innate, 
not  acquired  or  progressive.  As  instinctive  intel- 
ligence, especially  in  insects,  is  more,  reflective 
intelligence  is  less.  Instinctive  action  is  predeter- 
mined action,  and  works  out  the  design  of  another, 

(a)  Tenney  on  Zoology,  p.  4. 


232  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

not  its  owu.  What  it  is,  it  is  in  its  organization,  not 
its  will.  Each  creature  dominated  by  instinct  in- 
herits, not  acquires,  his  intelligence.  The  young 
bee  needs  no  teaching  to  build  its  cell,  nor  the 
bird  its  nest.  The  chicken  picks  its  way  out  of  its 
shell,  with  no  suggestion  from  its  mother  hen;  and 
it  always  begins  at  the  larger  end  of  the  shell. 
Nor  can  a  creature  of  mere  instinct  be  taught  to 
do  what  it  has  not  been  organized  to  do.  It  can 
not  be  educated  by  experience.  Its  organic  capac- 
ity is  its  true  capacity. 

Special  preparation  is  made  for  each  grade  of 
life.  The  vegetable  life  has  its  basis  in  assimila- 
tive power,  feeding  on  and  lifting  inert  minerals 
into  its  own  plane.  Some  animals  have  an  outer 
life  of  action,  and  others  both  an  outer  life  of 
action  and  an  inner  life  of  thought.  Special 
preparation  is  made  for  each.  The  outer  life  of 
action  is  based  upon  a  system  of  nerve-threads 
and  nerve-centres.  Imagine  a  long  skein  of 
white  silk  tied  up  into  knots,  at  certain  distances 
apart,  and  you  have  an  idea  of  the  ganglionic 
system  along  which  required  action  is  telegraphed 
to  the  muscles.  This  system  includes  a  spinal 
cord,  a  prolongation  of  the  spinal  cord,  and  a 
sort  of  hoad-centro  of  those  nerve-threads  at  the 


REFLECTIVE   INTELLIGENCE.  233 

top,  called  the  sensorium,  and  another  central  sta- 
tion for  higher  animal  action,  called  the  cere- 
bellum. 

(6)  Reflective  intelligence.  For  reflective,  con- 
scious intelligence,  or  the  inner  life  of  thought, 
there  is  superadded  to  all  this  nervous  system  for 
animal  action,  another  instrument  of  mind  called 
the  cerebrum.  From  the  lowest  vertebrates  this 
organ  increases  in  volume,  complexity,  and  import- 
ance of  place,  to  its  fullness  and  perfection  in  man. 
As  the  cerebrum,  so  is  reflective  intelligence. 
As  reflective  intelligence  is  more,  instinctive  action 
is  less;  or,  in  other  words,  mind  is  more  as  mate- 
rial ends  are  less;  and,  e  coiiverso,  material  ends 
are  more  as  mind  is  less.  Thus  nature's  grada- 
tions are  evident.  There  is  more  unintelligent 
life,  as  in  the  vegetable,  than  intelligent,  as  in  the 
animal.  There  is  more  instinct  life  among  the  ani- 
mals, as  with  the  insects,  than  intelligent,  as  with 
cerebrated  animals,  like  fishes  and  men.  There  are 
more  rudimentarily  cerebrated  animals,  like  fishes, 
than  fully  cerebrated  animals,  like  man.  Intelli- 
gence scales  all  the  way  up.  According  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  the  better 
are  always  the  fewer,  and  the  best  are  always  the 
fewest. 


234  THE  UNITY   OF   LAW. 

We  must  remember  that  one  grade  of  life  is 
correlative  to  another  grade  of  life;  the  vegetable 
feeds  on  minerals,  the  animal  feeds  on  living  veg- 
etables; and  one  living  animal  of  higher  degree 
not  only  feeds  on  vegetables,  but,  as  a  rule,  on 
other  living  animals  of  lower  degree.  In  both 
vegetable  and  animal  kingdom,  the  fittest  survives; 
and  n©  animal  species  has  more  intelligence  than 
is  needed  to  preserve  the  species;  otherwise  the 
species  would  not  only  survive,  but  increase  be- 
yond the  containing  capacity  of  space.  The  many 
are  the  perishable.  Among  the  lower  animals  the 
fittest  survive,  because,  by  rapacity,  speed  or  cun- 
ning, they  know  best  how  to  survive.  Nothing 
dies  that  knows  how  to  live.  The  hundred  know 
best  how  to  survive  over  the  thousand,  and  the 
ten  over  the  hundred,  and  the  one  over  the  ten. 

Again,  for  Avant  of  food,  "largo  animals  can 
not  be  so  abundant  as  small  ones;  the  carnivora 
must  be  less  numerous  than  the  herbivora;  eagles 
and  lions  can  never  be  so  plentiful  as  pigeons  and 
antelopes;  the  wild  asses  of  the  Tartarian  deserts 
can  not  equal  in  numbers  the  horses  of  the  more 
luxuriant  prairies  and  pampas  of  America.  The 
animal  population  of  the  globe  must  bo  stationary, 
or   perhaps,  through   the   influence    of  man,    do- 


NUMBER  OF  ANIMALS.  235 

creasing.     Fluctuations  there  may  be ;  but  perma- 
nent increase,  except  in   restricted   localities,    is 
almost  impossible.     For  example,  our  own  obser- 
vation must  convince  us   that  birds  do  not  go  on 
increasing  every  year   in  a  geometrical  ratio,  as 
they  would  do  were  there  not  some  powerful  check 
to  their  natural  increase.     Very  few  birds  produce 
less  than  two  young  ones  each  year,  Avhile  many 
have  six,    eight,    or   ten;    four  will   certainly   be 
below  the  average;  and  if  we  suppose  that  each 
pair  produce  young  only  four  times  in  their  life, 
that  will  also  be  below  their  average,  supposing 
them  not  to  die  either  by  violence  or  want  of  food. 
Yet,  at  this  rate,  how  tremendous  would  be  the 
increase  in  a  few  years!     A  simple  calculation  will 
show  that  in  fifteen  years  each  pair  of  birds  would 
have  increased  to  more  than  two  billions;  whereas, 
we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  number  of 
birds  of  any  country  increases  at  all  in  a  hundred 
years.     If  it  be   true  that   animals  increase  in  a 
geometrical  ratio,  when  favored  by  conditions  of 
life,  they  must  also  decrease  by  a  fixed  ratio,  or 
the  world  could  not  contain  them.     If  we  test  the 
matter  by  birds,  "as  on  the  lowest  calculation  the 
progeny  are  each  year  twice  as  numerous  as  their 
parents,  it  follows  that,  whatever  be  the  average 


236  THE  UNITY   OF  LAW. 

number  of  individuals  existing  in  any  given 
country,  livice  that  number  must  2^erish  annually — 
a  result  perhaps  under  rather  than  over  the 
truth."''  Taking  the  number  who  perish  in  the 
struggle  of  existence  as  the  weakest  in  intelli- 
gence, and  those  who  survive  as  the  strongest,  our 
proposition  is  proved  as  stated. 

Power  is  focalized.  Great  men  have  few  suc- 
cessors. Exceptional  intelligence  proves  the  rule 
of  the  general  average.  As  in  all  the  universe 
nothing  is  more  distinguishing  than  intelligence, 
therefore  it  is  the  gift  of  only  the  few;  for  that 
distinguishes  no  one  which  all  have  in  the  same 
degree.  If  intelligence  extended  from  unity  to 
plurality,  it  lessened  in  degree  as  it  increased  the 
number  of  individuals  endowed  with  it;  or,  if 
(though  such  a  thing  were  not  conceivable)  intelli- 
gence began  with  plurality,  it  decreased  the  num- 
ber receiving  it,  as  it  increased  the  degree  of  its 
strength,  from  little  knowledge  to  all  knowledge. 
It  seems  to  be  certain  that  intelligence  extends 
through  gradations  of  classes  and  individuals,  to 
inconceivable  plurality  in  ever-lessening  degree, 
und  that  such  plurality  converges  ti)  infinite  unity.'' 

(a)  Wallace  on  Nat.  Selection,  paper  II;  Darwin,  Origin  of 
SpecicM,  (Jli.  III. 

{/>)  Siiico  writing  tlie  above  I  have  seen  a  work  ))y  Pro.  15irks, 
<it  (  iiiiiliriilgc,  hliiglaiid,  on  "Sii|)(  inatiiiiil  i;t:\  illation,"  in  wliicli, 
1^1.  IIJ    2,  lie  gives  tlie  same  idea  of  culuiiuating  unity. 


SCALE  OF  INTELLIGENCE.  237 

However  it  may  be  accounted  for,  we  see  that 
from  plant  irritability  to  the  instinct  of  the  incon- 
ceivably numerous  animalculae,  and  up  to  the 
highest  grade  of  intelligent  creatures,  as  the  scale 
of  intelligence  rises,  the  number  of  individuals 
possessing  it  decreases,  and  even  in  the  same  grade 
that  those  who  know  the  most  vary  inversely  as  the 
ratio  of  the  numbers.  The  ignorant  are  man}';  the 
all-knowing  but  One. 

We  can  conceive  of  infinite  intelligence,  infinite 
power,  infinite  purity,  infinite  Avill;  but  these  all 
must  be  identical,  as  there  can  not  be  several  infin- 
ities. The  law  mentioned  has  before  it  both  finite 
intelligence  and  infinite  intelligence.  Which  is 
from  the  other?  Either  infinite  intelligence  is 
from  finite  intelligence,  or  finite  intelligence  is 
from  infijiite  intelligence.  But  if  infinite  intelli- 
gence is  from  finite  intelligence,  then  finite  intelli- 
gence is  either  self-existent  or  from  nothing. 
But  if  finite  intelligence  is  self-existent,  a  fortiori 
infinite  intelligence  is  self-existent,  and  so  not 
from  finite  intelligence.  But  if  finite  intelligence 
is  neither  from  infinite  intelligence  nor  is  self-ex- 
istent, it  is  from  nothing,  which  is  absurd;  for 
from  nothing  nothing  is.     So,  by  the  law  of  con- 


238  THE   UNITY  OF   LAW. 

traclictioiis,  finite  intelligence  must  be  from  Infinite 
Intelligence,  whicli  nothing  tr;inscends. 

"Tlie  culminating  point  of  Man's  Intellectual 
interpretation  of  Nature  may  be  said  to  be  liis  rec- 
ognition of  the  Unity  of  the  Power,  of  which  her 
phenomena  are  the  diversified  manifestations. 
Toward  this  point  all  scientific  inquiry  now  tends. 
For  the  convertibility  of  the  Physical  Forces,  the 
Correlation  of  these  with  the  Vital,  and  the  inti- 
macy of  that  nexus  between  Mental  and  Bodily 
activity  which,  explain  it  as  we  may,  can  not  be 
denied,  all  lead  upward  toward  one  and  the  same 
conclusion—  the  source  of  all  Power  in  Mind.  * 
*  "^  *  And  thus,  whilst  the  deep-seated  in- 
stincts of  Humanity,  and  the  profoundest  re- 
searches of  Philosophy,  alike  point  to  Mind  as  the 
one  and  only  source  of  Power,  it  is  the  high  pre- 
rogative of  science  to  demonstrate  the  iivUi/  of  the 
Power  whicli  is  operating  through  the  limitless  ex- 
tent and  variety  of  the  Universe,  and  to  trace  its 
coiil'undly  through  the  vast  series  of  ages  that  have 
been  occupied  in  its  evolution."'^ 

This  relation  of  one  to  many  and  many  to  one 
is  everywhere  revealed.  The  prism  gives  us  many 
colors,  and  the  spectrum  many  qualities  in  one  ray. 

(<i)  C'tirpciitur's  Mental  Tliysioloj^y,  sec.  r)79. 


THE  CENTRE  OF  CENTRES.  239 

The  uniformities  in  the  sequence  of  form  give  see  erkata. 
us  the  law  of  gradation,  inflecting  every  curve,  and 
varying  the  opening  of  every  angle.  In  sound, 
there  is  rythmic  unity  in  the  countless  notes  regis- 
tered on  the  air;  and  in  color,  hues,  scales,  and 
tones  keep  together  in  harmonies  of  analogy  of 
contrast,  to  the  unity  of  one  total  effect.  Centres 
are  themselves  centralized.  Nothing  is  alone. 
Every  atom  has  its  centre,  and  the  centre  of  every 
atom  is  tied  to  the  centre  of  every  other  atom,  and 
to  the  centre  of  centres  of  everything  that  is.  The 
many  atoms  unite  in  one  molecule,  many  molecules 
in  one  mass,  and  many  masses  in  one  system,  and 
many  systems  in  the  all-including  universe. 

In  concluding  this  course  of  lectures,  preliminary 
to  one  upon  legal  ethics,  have  we  not  seen  that 
matter  and  morality  are  under  the  same  laws,  have 
the  same  correlative  movement,  inversely  or  direct; 
the  same  centralization,  and  are  traceable  to  the 
same  unity  of  will?  If  this  constant  aim  has  been 
reached  in  the  wide  induction  followed,  we  see  that 
all  the  threads  of  law  run  back  into  the  hand  of  the 
one  Law-giver.  Have  we  not  reached  an  Authority 
for  that  morality  which  is  antecedent  to  all  law, 
who  is  eternal,  omniscient,  and  absolutely  One, 
"  whose  voice  is  the  harmony  of  the  world?" 


240  THE  UNITY  OF  LAW. 

Having  seen  the  unity  of  this  intelligence  in  the 
method  of  material  evolution,  by  which  matter  is 
ever  pushed  forward  from  heterogeneousness  to 
homogeneousness,  from  incoherence  to  coherence, 
from  the  indefinite  to  the  definite,  from  the  many 
to  the  few,  and  from  the  few  to  unity,  as  held  by 
nearly  every  philosopher;  and  having  seen  the 
laws  of  moral  conduct  moving  along  coincident 
lines,  evolving  the  unity  of  families,  gens,  cities, 
and  nations  of  lingual  affinity;  having  seen  relig- 
ious and  non-religious  forces,  for  thousands  of 
years,  correlating  directly  and  inversely,  even  as 
in  matter-force;  having  seen  that  all  material- 
ists have  gone  back  to  some  one  origin  of  the  uni- 
verse, and  all  moralists  to  some  one  basis  of  moral- 
ity, and  all  causes  to  be  included  in  one  cause;  that 
all  nature,  whether  personal  or  impersonal,  emerges 
from  some  one  beginning,  and  all  intelligence  is 
graded  in  ascending  augmentations  of  power,  what 
name  shall  we  give  to  this  Unity  from  whom  all 
things  did  come  in  the  past,  to  whom  all  things 
relate  in  the  present,  and  to  whom  all  things  return 
in  the  future  ?  The  name  with  the  Jews  was  Jeho- 
vah; with  the  Greeks,  Zeus;  with  the  Romans, 
Jupiter;    and  with  the  Saxons — God. 


LAW  r-TT^RAHY 

rNIVEKSnY  (    '  (ATJPORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


